


Persona: Shatter

by CogAndStar



Series: Shatterverse [1]
Category: Persona 2, Persona 3, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Found Family, LGBTQ Themes, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Tags May Change, Trans Character, chapter content warnings in notes, no beta we die like shinji
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:08:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28677186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CogAndStar/pseuds/CogAndStar
Summary: When tragedy strikes his family, Yuki Kanai is forced to move in with his aunt in the thriving metropolis of Mokushi. His life takes a turn for the apocalyptic when he discovers the Shattered World, an alternate reality where he can use the power of his psyche, his Persona, to face the mysterious Shadows whose Polarity Syndrome threatens his new home. The world is falling apart; can he fix it?
Series: Shatterverse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2134581
Comments: 14
Kudos: 5
Collections: Marigolds Discord Recs





	1. Tomorrow Starts Today

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Persona: The Sougawa Files](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14831952) by [Arsene_Phantom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsene_Phantom/pseuds/Arsene_Phantom). 



> howdy! this is a fic i've been working on, on and off, for a couple years now. i am thoroughly excited to finally be publishing it, and i hope that y'all like it too.  
> the plan is for it to be, basically, an original persona game. it has references to canon games, and some canon characters will make minor appearances, but the main cast is all original.  
> rating-wise, there is some profanity and there are gonna be some potentially-disturbing things throughout. i will do my best to provide content warnings at the top of chapters, but if i miss one please feel free to let me know so i can correct the error.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warnings for this chapter: death, corpses

**Saturday**

**April 9, 202X**

**Evening**

The sound of the train’s trundling wheels filled Yuki’s ears as he stared distantly out the window, his head slumped against the glass. His eyes, up to now unfocused and looking at nothing in particular, suddenly snapped to attention as he saw a luminescent blue butterfly floating just outside the window. He was entranced, eyes dashing around to follow the butterfly’s erratic flight path, and for a moment he thought he heard piano music and a woman singing…

The moment was interrupted by a large hand clapping down on his shoulder, making Yuki turn around and stare dully at the burly, middle-aged man who the hand belonged to. He registered some details about the man; he was wearing rumpled dirty clothes, his hair was a salt-and-pepper bird’s nest, and, the most distinctive feature, the eyepatch over his right eye.

“We’re at the station, kid. You must have missed the announcement. By the way, shouldn’t your parents be with you?” His voice was deep and gravelly.

Yuki grit his teeth and bristled. “Shouldn’t you have a caretaker with you, old man?”

“Bahaha!” The man laughed uproariously. “Good one, kid. I’ll let you be.”

With that, he grabbed his bag - a single suitcase, whose utter cleanliness sharply contrasted with the man’s general dishevelment - and strode down the train’s aisle and out the doors. Yuki shook his head, before grabbing his own luggage, which was significantly more than the old man’s. It was two full bags, and he had more being mailed straight to his destination. He made his way off the train, and into the station. Before making it too far, he pulled out his phone.

> **17:49** Yuki Kanai: i’m at the station; where should i meet you?
> 
> **17:49** Aunty: I’m at Gate B. Good to know you got here safely!
> 
> **17:49** Yuki Kanai: good to know you’re waiting for me. see you soon, aunty.

With this new knowledge, Yuki began to walk through Mokushi Station, occasionally consulting maps to find the route to Gate B. When he arrived, he saw a young woman, wearing jeans, a graphic tee, and glasses, who he recognized as his Aunty Chihiro by both the computer science joke on the shirt and the dark red hair they both shared. Her eyes snapped to him as she heard his footsteps on the linoleum floor of the station, and her face broke out into a grin.

“Hey Yuki! It’s good to see you!” She closed the gap and hugged him close.

Yuki laughed and returned the hug, releasing his luggage as he did so. “It’s good to see you too, Aunty.”

“Don’t call me that! You’ll make me feel old.”

Yuki felt a shit-eating grin come across his face. “Sure thing, Aunty.”

She snorted. “Troublemaker. Anyways, we should get going - we’re gonna go out for dinner. My treat.”

They released each other from the hug. “Really?”

“Yup! I know a place, and you deserve a warm welcome to your new home. Besides, after what happened…”

He sighed. “You don’t have to worry about that, Aunty. I’m fine.”

“If you say so. We’re still getting dinner.”

He rolled his eyes. “Alright. Let’s go.”

* * *

By the time they arrived, the sun was setting, casting the restaurant in which they were eating in golden light. It was called Ashima Sushi, and apparently Chihiro was a regular. In fact, she was enough of a regular for the folks behind the counter to recognize her instantly and ask how she was doing. She responded genially, and found them a seat by the windows.

“I’ll have my regular, Aya-chan! The same for my nephew here.”

“We’re on it, Chihiro-chan!”

With that, the aunt and nephew were left alone, sitting across from each other in a booth and waiting for sushi. Yuki decided to catalogue any changes in how his aunt looked since the last time they’d seen each other; they’d talked a lot over the phone setting up his move, but he hadn’t seen her face nearly as much as he’d heard her voice.

The first thing he noticed was the haircut. Her hair had once gone down to her mid-back, it was now trimmed and put up into two buns on top of her head, at forty-five degree angles. The next thing he noticed was the bags under her black eyes. They were dark and heavier than he expected; he knew the situation was stressful, but he didn’t expect her to be losing that much sleep. Looking at her eyes, he realized that she was looking at the TV nearest to their booth, which was playing the news. Frowning, he decided to listen in and see what was so interesting.

“...another post alleging the Dosei Group is hiding information about the recent spate of disappearances in Mokushi, from the hacker AURORA. It remains unknown if this hacker is a lone wolf or in fact a group, and if it has any connection to Medjed or other historical hacker groups. The Dosei Group released a statement denying the claims, and calling them…”

“You work at Dosei, don’t you?”

Chihiro jumped, seemingly focused entirely on the news. She scratched the back of her neck. “Yup, I’m in their cybersecurity department. It’s why I’m so focused on the news; I’m probably gonna have to deal with this AURORA eventually.”

Yuki furrowed his brow. “What’s up with the disappearances?”

Chihiro grimaced. Right as she was going to speak, the waitress came back with their food, laying it on the table. “Nevermind. Let’s not ruin our meal, okay, Yuki?”

Frowning, he yielded. “Alright.”

* * *

The sushi was good, and the service even better. Tragically, it had to come to a close, and Yuki and Chihiro left to drive home. The ride was spent in a companionable silence, as Chihiro focused on driving and Yuki took the chance to observe the city he would be living in for the foreseeable future. Mokushi was different from his hometown of Sapporo. For one thing, it was hotter, though, thankfully, it wasn’t that much more humid. There were differences beyond climate, too. It seemed chock-full of advertisements, and a _lot_ of them were for Dosei products.

His eyes were currently trained on a great big video screen on a building wall in the intersection of roads they were sitting at. It had a winking woman in a stylized, skintight spacesuit, reclining on the exterior of a space station, and holding up a cube, matte black but for the glowing green lines criss-crossing it’s faces in a manner resembling a star-chart, whose light pulsed in a smooth, regular rhythm. Lines connected the stars in the background of space, forming them into slick, modern text which read _“Dosei Astraea: she’ll take you out of this world.”_

They left the intersection, but he kept seeing Dosei ads. There were more for Astraea, which appeared to be a smart speaker device, some for other Dosei Electronics products, a few for medicines from Dosei Pharmaceutical, and even a couple for a Dosei-brand _car_ . Yuki was honestly baffled by the sheer number of them. Not just the number of advertisements in general - though there were quite a bit - but also the number that were specifically Dosei ads. They constituted a good half of the ads he saw, which was wild to Yuki, who was used to variety among advertisements.

His musings were interrupted by his aunt’s gentle voice informing him of their arrival. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and got to grabbing his luggage and entering the apartment building. Chihiro swiped a plastic card at the keypad, which beeped permission to enter at them. While his aunt waved and greeted the man at the desk, Yuki simply hummed an acknowledgement of his existence.

The lobby was, in a word, plain. It was full of simple, rectangular shapes and the walls were all myriad shades of beige. The only things that stood out at all were the brick patterning on the floor and the large potted plants whose vivid foliage occupied an entire corner of the room. He noticed a few, hard-to-see stains, but they were small and frankly, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It wasn’t an exceptional building, but it could very easily be much worse. It was much the same with the elevator and hallway leading to the apartment.

“Alright, this is our place. Remember, we’re in 704.”

Yuki hummed in the affirmative as they entered the apartment. It was a simple home, but it was a home. It had a TV, sofa and dining table, as well as a kitchen, not separated from the living room except by the island. The walls had color, being painted in shades of green and black, and were covered in decorations, like Christmas lights, Featherman posters, and some framed pictures of people he didn’t quite recognize, though many of them looked vaguely familiar.

“Welcome to my humble abode!” Chihiro turned to face him and spread her arms wide, gesturing all around the apartment. She grinned. “How do you like it?”

“Featherman V, huh? I knew you had good taste, Aunty.”

“Of course I do, where do you think you got yours from? Sure as hell wasn’t from your mom.” She froze.

Yuki did too, for a second. Then he snorted. “Yeah, she always preferred Zephyrman. Don’t know what that was about.”

Chihiro relaxed. “Neither do I. Anyways, you’re probably pretty conked out from all that traveling. Why don’t you put your bags down and go to sleep? We can finish unpacking all your stuff tomorrow after registration.”

“Alright. Where’s my room?”

“The door’s back in the entryway, right across from the bathroom door. If you need anything, feel free to wake me up, okay?”

He rolled his eyes. “If there’s a monster under the bed, go to you. Cool.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Still, she smiled at him. “Sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite!”

With that, Yuki was left alone in the living room, and with nothing else to do, he went to his room. Contrary to the living room, there was little in the way of decorations. It had all the necessities: a twin-sized bed, a closet, and a desk, which already had the computer he’d mailed from Sapporo set up. He let down the bag which held his clothes, before opening it up to grab some pajamas. After changing into them, he settled into bed, and soon he was off to sleep.

* * *

**???**

There was the sound of shattering glass, and Yuki was lying on his back on a hard surface, staring up into an endless white void, punctuated with little black specks like shadowy stars and one great big, pitch-black circle like the sun’s evil clone. He pushed himself up a bit and looked around, finding that the surface he was on was a hexagon, covered in tiling hexagons, alternating between red and black. At each vertex of the hexagon, there was a tall Doric pillar, also alternating between red and black.

“Hello there.” A deep, rasping voice came from a man wearing a full suit of rust-covered armor, with one gauntlet having long, sharp-looking claws at the end of the fingers. These claws were the only parts of the armor that were not rusty, and were, in fact, polished to a silver shine.

"...Hello?"

The man growled.

“Do not speak unless I tell you to. Now, I have one simple question for you: What is your name?”

Through the visor, Yuki could see two glowing points where eyes should be. One of them was gold, and the other was crimson.

“Why should I tell you?”

He flicked his claws at Yuki. Electricity sparked off them, and then he was crying out in agony from the point-blank lightning bolt that had struck his chest.

“That’s why. Now answer me.”

Hissing and gritting his teeth in pain, Yuki spoke.

“Y-Yuki Kanai.”

“A fine name. Impressive that you remember it, here in this place, between dream and reality.”

The man in armor moved over Yuki, placing his still-sparking claws on Yuki’s throat.

“Now, one more thing, and I’ll let you go, at least for now. Will you take responsibility for all your actions?”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“It should be self-explanatory. Answer the question.”

“Alright, yes, I’ll do it!”

“Say the whole thing.”

“I will take responsibility for all my actions.”

He pulled back his claws.

“Good! That wasn’t so hard, now was it? I think it’s time for you to go back from whence you came. I’ll be seeing you!”

There was the sound of shattering glass, and darkness.

* * *

**Sunday**

**April 10th, 202X**

**Early Morning**

Yuki woke up with a gasp, tangled in his sheets and covered in sweat. He panted as he looked around the room and tried to piece together what was going on. A hand came up to rub the sleep from his eyes, and he dimly remembered the nightmare. The hand went down and he sat up. Yuki shook his head as though to shake the nightmare out of it, and got up to get ready for the day.

He rifled through the yet-to-be-unpacked bag of clothes on the floor, and retrieved a very important outfit: his school uniform. It was composed of a pastel cyan blazer, with the tie matching the color, while the button-up shirt that went underneath the blazer was a plain white and the slacks were a slate grey. He laid it out, and then went across the hall and into the bathroom. Fairly quickly, Yuki stripped, and submitted himself to the scalding hot water of the shower. As he began his daily ablutions, the heat helped him to push out the remaining anxiety from the dream. By the time he was out, he was calm and ready to start his day.

Dressed in his school uniform, and having both tied up his dark red hair in his customary top-knot and donned his thin-rimmed, rectangular glasses, Yuki went to the kitchen to see if anything was being made for breakfast. He found it completely empty, surprising him. Regardless, he began to search through the cabinets and fridge for something to eat, but nothing looked particularly appetizing.

Sighing, he resigned himself to sitting down on the living room sofa and scrolling on his phone until it was time to go. There were a few good memes which warranted a pronounced breath through the nose, and some even got a sensible chuckle. These were interspersed with theories about Featherman V, callout posts, and the lurid details of ongoing crises which Yuki could do nothing about, but he read anyway.

A yawn took his attention away from the phone, and towards his aunt, who was sleepily exiting her bedroom. Her hair was frizzled and sticking up everywhere, and she was wearing a t-shirt that was much too big for her. She looked at Yuki, and blinked a few times before her eyes focused and she processed what she was seeing.

“What are you doing up and dressed so early?”

He shrugged.

“Nevermind, I’m gonna-” She interrupted herself with another large yawn. “I’m gonna shower and then I’ll make breakfast.”

Yuki returned to his scrolling, but in a few minutes Chihiro was back, dressed and cleaned.

“Alright, kiddo, whaddaya want to eat?”

Yuki shrugged. “Meh.”

“Sadly, we are fresh out of _meh_.”

“I’m not craving anything in particular, Aunty. Make what you want.”

“If you say so.”

Chihiro got to work, while Yuki kept on scrolling and scrolling. The apartment was filled with the sounds of her cooking and him scrolling. Rice was washed and put into the rice cooker; he snorted at some memes. Salmon sizzled on the stovetop; a bad pun made him groan loudly. Water was heated and powder was added to make instant miso soup; a particularly good joke made him wheeze.

“Alright, phones away. It’s eating time.”

The two dug into the meal of rice, salmon, and miso soup. It wasn’t a five-star meal, but Chihiro was a competent cook, so Yuki ate the whole thing. They made small talk over the meal, a good bit of it taken up by their shared nerdy interests, such as Featherman. Eventually, however, the meal was done and it was time for them to go, so as to finish up registration.

“Hey, Yuki, you’ve got your form all filled out, right? We’ll need it when we get to Souzou.”

Yuki did not have the form all filled out. It was, in fact, completely blank, as he had procrastinated filling it out up until now. He knew everything to put on it, and knew exactly where in his bag it was, but he just hadn’t gotten around to it. He decided not to inform his aunt of the details of this story, and so simply said:

“Shit, I completely forgot about that! I’ll fill it out on the way, don’t worry.”

With that, he rushed to grab it, and then to get into the car, completely ignoring Chihiro’s squawked surprise and dismay.

* * *

**Sunday**

**April 10th, 202X**

**Morning**

“You’re lucky you knew everything for the form off the top of your head.”

“I know.”

“You’re gonna have to stop it with the last-minute rushes to finish things, Yuki. I know you’ve been doing it for a while, but it really isn’t-”

“We’re here.”

They had, in fact, arrived at the principal’s office of Souzou Academy, and so they entered. They were greeted with three people. One was sat at the desk, and the other two were on either side of it. At the desk was a middle-aged woman whose long grey hair was tied up into a bun, and who was wearing a yellow-green coat over a white blouse.

To the right of the desk was a short man, with a square jaw and curly, brownish-orange hair kept in an undercut, wearing a slate grey waistcoat over an off-white dress shirt as well as dress pants which matched the waistcoat. To the left was what was obviously a student of the school, given her youth and her uniform. She was of average height and willowy build, with pale skin and long, straight black hair, with bangs coming to right above the eyes and sidelocks going to her cheeks. Her eyes were keen and the color of steel.

The woman at the desk was the first to speak. “Ah, welcome, Kanai-san, Kanai-kun. I am Saeko Takami, and I am the principal of Souzou Academy. It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Kanai-kun.”

Yuki hummed noncommittally. Seemingly unfazed, the Principal brought out the last of the paperwork. Yuki handed over his part, and Chihiro signed off on what she needed to.

“Well then, I suppose it’s time for the rest of the introductions.” She gestured to the man. “This is Tadashi-sensei. He will be your homeroom teacher, in Class 3-C.”

“I hope we will have a productive year together, Kanai-kun.”

The Principal gestured to the girl. “And this is our Student Council President, Tomoyo Yamazaki. She will be giving you a tour of the school.”

“It’s a pleasure, Kanai-kun. Please, feel free to come to me with any complaints, questions, or requests you may have throughout the school year.”

“One last thing before you leave on your tour, Kanai-kun. Though we are happy to have you here at Souzou, we are also sorry to hear of the circumstances that led to your transfer. As a reminder, we _do_ have a counselor on staff. If I were you, I would take advantage of Matsumoto-sensei's services.”

He hummed again.

The Principal raised an eyebrow, but anything she would have said was interrupted by a beeping from Chihiro’s phone. Everyone in the room turned to look at her as she examined the notification.

“Ah, dammit. There’s an emergency at work and I’ve been called in. Here, Yuki.”

She handed him two cards, one white and the other black.

“The white one’s your key to the apartment and the black one’s a card for the Metro; you can take it home once you’re done here, alright?”

He pocketed them.

“Sure thing, Aunty. Good luck at work.”

With that, Chihiro left. Tadashi-sensei left too, saying something about seeing him in class tomorrow, and only him, Yamazaki, and the Principal remained in the room. The Principal shooed them out, telling them to start the tour and reminding Yuki that her office was always open to students.

“So, where we going first, Ms. Prez?”

“So you _do_ speak after all.”

“Eh, gotta save a tongue this good for special occasions.”

“Is this a special occasion, then?”

He waggled his eyebrows. “It could be, if you wanted.”

She scowled. “No.”

He raised his hands in surrender. “Alright. No more flirting. I ain’t gonna stop with the nickname, though.”

“It’s far from the worst thing I’ve been called. I think I’ll live. Now, let’s actually do what we’re supposed to be doing.”

The duo walked through the halls of Souzou Academy, with Yamazaki showing him what the various rooms were for. The layout was fairly similar to his old school, but one thing stood out: it was all a lot more fancy than that one. There was a computer lab, fully stocked with the latest tech. Throughout the halls, there were LCD screens which had announcements and upcoming events listed on them. All the rooms had fancy decor which seemed to have been maintained and repaired within the year.

“So, how rich _is_ this school? And how much is Aunty paying for me to go here, anyway?”

She glanced coolly at him. “We have a sizable endowment, enabled by the various donors. The biggest is the Dosei Group, who also funds full-ride scholarships for students of employees. Your aunt isn’t paying a single yen for you to be here.”

Yuki let out a breath in relief. “Good. I’d hate to be even more of a burden on her than I already am.”

“Quite.” There was a pause. “By the way, would you mind if I asked about what the circumstances Takami-sensei mentioned are?”

He shrugged. “Sure. I’m an orphan.”

Yamazaki tripped and almost fell, but managed to catch herself against the wall. “P-pardon?”

“My parents are dead. Deceased. They kicked the bucket. They bought the farm. They are ex-parents.”

She rolled her eyes. “I gathered that much. You just...shocked me with your bluntness. May I ask for more details?”

“You may, Ms. Prez. Dad died when I was seven. He got sick with something, I don’t remember the details. But my mom died just last month. One night she went to bed and...didn’t wake up. Nobody knows quite what happened, but I had to live with someone. So I came out here from Sapporo, and boom! Here we are.”

“How can you just...talk about it? I know if I were in that situation, I wouldn’t be able to discuss it so frankly with someone I just met.”

He shrugged, looking away. “I mean, I gotta move forward eventually right? I’m just getting a head start.”

“I suppose. Now, here’s the club rooms. You did kendo at your last school, right?”

“Yup.”

“Do you intend on doing it this year?”

“We’ll see.”

“Well, if you’re interested, they have try-outs on the 15th. Oh, Doi-kun!”

There was an athletic girl exiting the kendo room. She was wearing the pastel cyan tracksuit that was Souzou’s athletic uniform, and carried a black duffel bag over her shoulder. Her black hair was tied back, revealing an angular face and bright green eyes.

“Hello, Yamazaki-senpai. Is this a transfer student?”

Yuki waved. “Yup, the name’s Yuki Kanai. What about you, Sword?”

She blinked. “Sword?”

He inclined his head towards the door she came from. “You do kendo, right? So you’re Sword.”

“Well, my real name is Saori Doi. Which class will you be in?”

“3-C, with Tadashi-sensei.”

“Oh! You’ll be my senpai, then. It’s good to meet you.”

She bowed at him, which he looked at with no small amusement.

“Likewise, Sword.”

“Does he stop with the nicknames?” This was directed towards Yamazaki.

“Sadly, no.”

“Nicknames are non-negotiable.”

* * *

**Monday**

**April 10th, 202X**

**Afternoon**

Doi stayed with them throughout the rest of the tour, adding her own commentary. It turned out she was a first year, but had already been recruited for the kendo team, and had been getting in some early practice. Eventually, the tour was over, and the trio split up. Doi went home, Yamazaki went to do some student council work, and Yuki decided to do some exploring of Mokushi. Hey, he had a subway card, why not use it?

The first destination he decided to explore was Kimu Ward, on the other side of the river. It seemed like a decent way to spend an afternoon - it had Amokan Shopping Center, the largest shopping district in the city. Unfortunately, it did take a rather long time to get there. So, Yuki resigned himself to a long subway ride spent staring at his phone.

The positively thrilling experience of doomscrolling with the occasional nose-laugh mixed in was interrupted by the view of a luminescent blue butterfly fluttering just outside the window. Entranced, he tore his eyes away from the horrible state of the world which he could do nothing about to instead stare at this butterfly, which at least had the benefits of not filling him with despair at the state of the world.

Yuki managed to spend the entire train ride to Kimu watching the beautiful butterfly as it danced around in the tunnel’s air. As the train came to a smooth stop in the station, the butterfly landed on the window, and stood there, perfectly still, for several seconds. Then, the moment the train finally stopped, it dissolved into glowing dust of the same brilliant blue color, which floated away as though on a strong wind. Blinking his eyes and shaking his head at the weirdness of it all, Yuki exited the subway and began to navigate his way out of the station.

It took a few stops at a map and questions to stationmasters, but he did eventually get out and into Kimu Ward proper. Looking up directions, he found Amokan, which seemed like it would be a good idea to familiarize himself with. Yuki plugged the address into his phone’s map app and followed the robotic voice’s directions as he walked towards his destination.

It didn’t take too long to reach the shopping center; however, this only presented a new problem: Amokan was very large. It was, in fact, a whole street unto itself, with a glass roof overhead and with entrances that prevented any cars from driving onto it. This meant that Yuki was spoiled for options with where to go.

However, one thing quickly took priority: his stomach’s rumbling and grumbling. Chastised by the whale-like sounds emanating from his abdomen, Yuki began a hunt for good, cheap food. Fortunately for him, he found a ramen shop and was soon setting into his meal. His slurping-up of noodles was interrupted by a hand patting his shoulder to get his attention. Yuki grunted as he turned his eyes to the interloper, a man with a square face and cleft chin, wearing a clean black suit whose color matched his smoothed back hair.

“Hey, kid. Why are you wearing your uniform? School hasn’t started yet.” The man laughed at his own joke.

Yuki finished slurping some noodles before answering. “Transfer student. Finished registration and got a tour today.”

“Oh, so you’re new in town! Souzou, right? My boss’s kid goes there, maybe I could introduce you. No such thing as too many friends, is what I always say. What’s your name?”

“...Yuki Kanai.”

The man paused for a bit and then grinned. “That’s a good name! I’ll tell the kid about you. Well, have a good life, Kanai-kun.”

With that farewell, the man got up and left without paying for his own meal. Apparently, this was typical, as the staff of the shop simply bid him goodbye as he left. Unsettled, Yuki returned to his meal. When he finished, he got up, paid for his bowl of ramen, and returned to the street outside, stretching his arms out and popping his back. Before he began his wanderings, Yuki took off his cyan blazer and stuffed it into his bag. He didn’t want any trouble he got up to reflecting poorly upon his new school, after all.

Newly-freed from both the physical restraints of the blazer and the societal restraints of such obvious association with a prestigious school, he stepped forth to explore Amokan. As he wandered, he saw an array of stores and such: hardware stores, movie theaters, bookshops, diners, beef bowl shops, arcades, and some music stores. Scattered throughout were advertisements, a good few of which were for Dosei products. There were also several ads for a presentation by Akemi Kugane, who was apparently a local actress, on how to get into acting. Not really Yuki’s thing, but it could be an interesting way to spend some time. He made a note of the date - April 29th, Showa Day.

One thing drew his eyes away from the Kugane ads and towards an alleyway leading off from the main Amokan street: the hints of graffiti covering it’s walls. Intrigued, he walked into the alley, and examined the art. Yuki spent a fair bit of time appreciating the bold colors and strokes of the art, but was rudely interrupted by a barking shout from the end of the alley.

“What are you doing here?”

For a moment, Yuki simply stared at the group of delinquents gathered in the alley, mixed between squatting and standing, whose pompadour-haired leader had called him out. Then, an idea came to mind about how he could relieve some of the stress from...well, his entire life lately. The thought brought a sharp grin across his face.

“I’m appreciating the artwork. Would you happen to know the artist?”

“Know the artist? I _am_ the artist.”

Yuki made a show of looking him up and down and sneering. “Somehow I doubt you have the capabilities for that.”

The rather buff leader (he nicknamed him Pompadour in his head) and his two underlings (one tall and lean, the other short and squat, mentally nicknamed Biggie and Smalls) ruffled at that.

“What?! You don’t think I could do this, you piece of shit?”

“That is what I just said, yes.”

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to show you my _capabilities_ myself,” Pompadour growled, and then pounced at Yuki.

Yuki dropped his bag off his shoulder and onto the ground as he dodged the initial strike. Gleeful at his gambit’s success, he struck back, his fist finding home in Pompadour’s stomach. He slammed his other fist into the foe’s chin, and then kicked him in the knee. While he stumbled, Biggie lashed out at Yuki.

His blow hit Yuki’s shoulder, sending him into a spin which he quickly brought to a halt. His counterattack is interrupted by Smalls’ leg catching his calf and tripping him. Even as he was forced to catch himself, stinging his palms in the process, Yuki’s grin only grew. Pushing himself back up, he used the momentum to throat-punch Biggie, before slamming his head into the wall, knocking him unconscious.

Smalls came at him from behind, wrapping an arm around his throat and squeezing tight. Pompadour leered as he pulled back for a punch. However, Yuki jumped up and slammed both of his feet into Pompadour’s chest, before headbutting Smalls in the nose. Released from the grapple, he grabbed Smalls and returned the favor. Instead of just choking him, he hoisted him off the ground and threw him at Pompadour. The two wound up in a groaning pile on the ground, unable to move.

“Well then! Thanks, guys, that was a pretty good fight. I gotta get going though, so have a good rest of your day! And by the way, that is actually some damn good art. Good job on that, Pompadour.”

Tucking his hands, now with a little blood on them, into his pockets, Yuki left the alleyway and found a public restroom with a sink so he could wash the blood off. After this, he decided that he’d had enough fun in Amokan, and began heading to the station to return home. 

* * *

As he rode the subway through the tunnels, he saw the same butterfly he’d seen before, once again just outside the window. This time however, it seemed more frantic - instead of flying in lazy curves, it was darting about in jagged lines forming no apparent pattern. Intrigued, Yuki stared at the panicking butterfly for a good few minutes, until it landed on… nothing?

But after a second look, he saw it wasn’t nothing. It was a thin, barely-visible white line, looking like a glowing hairline fracture in the tunnel wall. But it was growing, and growing, and growing. Then it all happened at once.

There was a loud sound, as though an entire hall of mirrors had shattered in unison. The white crack was suddenly not white at all, but instead every color Yuki could name and some more he couldn’t. Through the crack, which was now two meters wide, he could peer into what looked like a whole other world, and in that world he saw a slender man wearing golden armor, a blood red skirt, and a golden hoplite's helmet with a red plume, who was wielding a spear with a blade as long as the man was tall.

That same blade struck out from the crack, and slammed into the subway car. It retreated, and as suddenly as it had come, the crack was gone. Yet still, the subway had been struck hard, and it went speeding off the rails, just as it came into a station.

Within his head, Yuki heard a low, hollow voice whisper something he couldn’t make out, and then he was thrown hard from his seat as the train slammed into the station. He heard the metal screech in protest, and then shear itself apart under the strain. He blacked out for a few seconds, but when he came to, the roof was gone, and he could see the sky through it.

He was surrounded by the dead, broken bodies laying motionless throughout the car. Swallowing bile, Yuki began to move, striding past them and trying to ignore all the corpses he was having to push and pull around so as to get out of there. After several minutes of this unpleasant (to say the least) experience, he managed to get to a door, which was fortunately already torn open by the forces acting on the metal. Unfortunately, it was not ground-level; the same forces that had opened it had tilted the train so the door was facing upwards. Still, it was Yuki’s only way out of here, and so he began climbing up and out. He hissed as he cut his hand on some of the shorn metal, but he was able to make it outside of the train car, and onto it’s walls.

Yuki stood, uncertain and unsteady, atop the derailed train car, and gazed out into the rest of Domaku Station, which had been subject to chaos similar to the interior of the train. Pillars were broken, as was much of the flooring and other such things. However, there were emergency responders there; EMTs and paramedics from the fire department, as well as officers and detectives from the police department.

One of the detectives turned around, and saw Yuki standing there. Immediately, he began shouting and gesturing for the other responders to go and help him. A mixed crew of EMTs and paramedics jogged over to the edge, and began coordinating together to get into a position and formation where they could safely catch him if he jumped down.

A paramedic with short black hair buzzed short shouted up to him.

“Hey! Sit down on the ledge, and on the count of three, slide off, okay? We’ll catch you!”

Silently, Yuki nodded and obliged.

“Three! Two! One! There you go. Alright, let’s get you checked out, okay? Where does it hurt?”

Yuki stared and blinked, as he realized that he was in no pain whatsoever.

“Nowhere.”

“Don’t play tough with me, you were just in a train crash. I’ll ask again, where does it hurt?”

He shook his head.

“It doesn’t! I’m as surprised as you, I should be in so much pain right now but I’m _not_. And no, I have no idea why, either.”

“That’s...weird. I’m still giving you an examination though.”

“Yeah, sure, go ahead, do your job.”

And so Yuki spent the next few minutes sitting in a ruined subway station, getting examined by a paramedic for injuries that he should, by all rights, have, but very distinctly _didn’t_. He knew what the paramedic was checking for - his dad had been a paramedic, and had taught Yuki about first aid and other medical stuff when he was a kid - and he knew that she wouldn’t find anything wrong with him.

“Huh. You really do seem entirely uninjured. Well, let’s get your guardian over here so you can go home, okay? What’s your name, and who should we call?”

“Yuki Kanai, call my Aunt Chihiro.” He proceeded to give her Chihiro’s number.

While the paramedic called Chihiro, one of the detectives wearing a fedora and a long coat walked over. He was a tall young man, with curly black hair that went down to the nape of his neck. In his hands, there was a paper notepad and a ballpoint pen, ready to take notes.

“Hello. I’m Inspector Kouichi Okita, with the Mokushi PD. I’m just gonna ask you a few questions, and then you can head on your way, okay? Hikeshi-san already checked you out for any injuries, correct?”

“Yup. I am, somehow, completely unscathed. And no, I have no idea how.”

“That’s impressive. But I’d like to start at the beginning. Where and when did you get on the subway, and where were you headed?”

“I got on at Kimu Station, right around 12:30. I was actually on my way here to Domaku, it's where I live.”

“Well, you’ve certainly had an interesting ride home. Do you know what happened?”

Yuki furrowed his brow.

“I know it was a pretty normal ride up until I saw the butterfly.”

“Butterfly?”

“It was bright blue and glowing, I saw it out the window of the train. Then there was a glowing...crack, I guess? It was bright white, and spanned across the entire wall of the tunnel.”

“Did this crack do anything?”

“Yeah, one second it was pretty thin, like a hairline fracture. Then it grew, and it was about as wide as you are tall. I honestly can’t describe what color it was, I just know it kept changing. In the crack, I saw a burly man with a scythe, who swung it at the train. Then the crack was gone, and the train was going off rails.”

“Huh. That’s quite the tale. Unfortunately, I don’t think my superiors are gonna take it as fact.”

“I can’t really blame them.”

Okita laughed. “You can’t, can you? I don’t think I have any more questions for you, unless you’ve got any more details to give.”

“Not right now, no.”

“Well, if you remember anything else, then feel free to call or text me. Here’s my number.”

He dashed off the digits on a sheet of notepad paper, tore it off, and handed it to Yuki, who took it, folded it carefully, and put it in his pocket. Anything else the two wanted to say were interrupted by a female voice.

“Yuki! Are you okay?”

It was Chihiro, running past the paramedics to get to where Yuki was. When she got there, she seized Yuki and pulled him into a very, very strong hug. He wrapped his own arms around her.

“I am, but I might not be if you keep squeezing, Aunty.”

She pulled back, but looked at him skeptically.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, and you can ask the paramedic who checked me. I’m perfectly fine. Can we go home now?”

Chihiro kept fussing over him, but eventually she relented and piled him into her car. When they got home, she made sure he got comfortable on the couch while she called Ashima Sushi for some takeout as comfort food. All the while, he insisted that he wasn’t hurt whatsoever and there was exactly zero reason to do all this, but she was obstinate.

And so they spent the rest of the night on the couch, watching anime together. Eventually, he got up and went to his room. After stripping off his uniform, he crawled into bed, and for a good few minutes, he lay there staring up at the roof, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on with his life lately. Then, he mentally shrugged and gave up on what was clearly a fruitless endeavor, and finally went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> challenge: guess where the chapter title comes from! your reward will be a fun fact about the development of this story.
> 
> also check out the Sougawa Files and their sequel! they're solid oc fics and a huge part of the reason why i'm actually doing this.
> 
> if you want to see other stuff i do and hear updates on the process of writing Shatter, check me out [@cogandstar](https://cogandstar.tumblr.com) at tumblr.
> 
> thanks for reading! the next chapter should be published on Sunday, January 24. see y'all then!


	2. Crude Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuki makes some friends, goes to school, and learns some things about his new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warnings: mentions of hallucinations and disappearances

**???**

When his eyes opened, Yuki was in a bed, but it was not his own. It was narrow, and not particularly comfortable. Also, it was lifted up, so he was sitting up despite lying back as far as he could go. The… room? Actually, no, he could feel it moving and hear an engine humming, so it was probably a vehicle of some sort. The  _ vehicle _ looked very much like an ambulance, except everything was very, very blue. And gold, there was plenty of gold too.

Sat by his bedside, in one of the ambulance’s swivelly chairs mounted on the wall, was an androgynous person, wearing an interesting outfit. The bottom layer was a form-fitting black jumpsuit with vivid blue highlights, over which was put a loose blue apron covered in a star pattern. Completing the ensemble was a bright blue nurse’s cap, with a thick black line around the middle. The person within the outfit had a similarly interesting appearance; their hair was short and wavy and, most notably, white as snow, and their round eyes were a piercing gold.

This intriguing individual was not the only other inhabitant of this ambulance. On the opposite side of the ambulance from Yuki, directly across from him, was an exceedingly long-nosed old man wearing a smart black suit sat at a small, circular table, upon which his elbows sat to support his hands, folded underneath his nose. The old man opened his bloodshot eyes suddenly, and stared directly into Yuki’s.

“Welcome, to the Velvet Room. My name is Igor, and the one by your side is Felix. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, dear guest.”

Yuki quirked an eyebrow. “Velvet Room?”

“This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those with a contract may enter.”

“Contract? Unless you mean the school paperwork, I don’t remember signing any contracts recently.”

Felix spoke up, in a voice which was haunting and gave absolutely no further clues as to their gender.

“We are not always the ones who promulgate the contract, and they are not always written down on paper.”

“Then how do you know I’ve made a contract?”

They cocked their head. “It is… hard to explain. Rest assured that we do know you have made a contract, and we know it’s terms.”

Igor spoke. “Yes. You agreed to take responsibility for all your actions, did you not?”

“The dream with the rusty armor dude? That was a contract? Do you know who he was?”

Igor and Felix shared a look, and then Igor continued.

“That was, indeed, a contract. Unfortunately, we cannot tell you the identity of your contractor. Now, we have more pressing matters to discuss. You will, over the course of the next year, undergo a journey and unlock a great power. It is our duty to aid you on this journey.”

Igor looks around at the ambulance.

“Hmm… This place takes on a shape based on that of the guest’s heart. For it to take on the shape of an ambulance… I believe, dear guest, that your journey will be one of convalescence.”

“Convalescence?”

“Unfortunately, we have run out of time. Until we meet again.”

Felix piped up, “I look forward to it!”

Before Yuki could respond, everything went dark.

* * *

**Monday**

**April 11th, 202X**

**Early Morning**

Yuki awoke, and this time he was actually in his own bed. Groggily, he stretched for his phone to check the time. It was significantly later than he would normally wake up, and definitely later than when he had asked Chihiro to wake him up so he could get ready and get to school on time. Hurriedly, he rushed out of bed and into his uniform.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?!”  


As he questioned his aunt, he walked out of the room and slid his arms into the uniform blazer. That done, he got to buttoning.

“Because I didn’t think you would be going to school today,” she calmly replied as she typed on her laptop.

“Why on Earth would you think that?”

She stared at him.

“You do remember what happened yesterday, right? You’re not suffering memory loss or anything?”

“Yes, I remember it. I also  _ distinctly _ remember being entirely unscathed. So I’m going to school.”

“No, you aren’t.”

“Yes I am. Aunty, you don’t need to  _ coddle _ me.” He hissed the word  _ coddle _ as though it were the worst thing he could imagine.  


“ _ Coddling?! _ You were in a train crash! Letting you stay home from school after that isn’t coddling you!”

He made a frustrated growl in his throat.

“Regardless, I’m gonna be going to school. Even if you’ve already called in, I’ll still show up.”

She looked him up and down, and seemed to make a decision. Sighing, she spoke.

“Alright. The paramedics  _ did _ say you were fine. I won’t stop you; to be honest, I don’t even think I could.”

“Aw, you know me so well, Aunty.”

“I damn well better, kid.”

After that exchange, Yuki finished up getting his uniform on, and then made himself some toast. While that was in the toaster, he double-checked that he had everything he would need for the first day in his bag. Once the toast was finished, he grabbed it and started eating as he walked out the door.

“Have fun!” called Chihiro.

“I’ll certainly try!”

* * *

**Monday**

**April 11th, 202X**

**Morning**

The ride from Domaku to Akijou didn’t take too long, and soon enough Yuki was walking from the station to Souzou, along with a whole crowd of fellow students wearing the same pastel cyan as him. Scanning the crowd with his eyes, he spotted somebody he recognized from yesterday: Doi, walking alongside a taller boy carrying a duffel bag like her, with ashy brown hair in an undercut. Wandering over, he tapped her on the left shoulder and then began walking at her right side.

“Yes, Kensei-senpai?”

The boy next to her glanced up from his phone in confusion. Yuki could see a band-aid across his nose.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Heya, Sword.”

Doi whipped her head around and glared at him.

“Rude.”

“That’s me!”

The boy, apparently called Kensei, kept staring in confusion.

“You know this guy, Doi-chan?”

Yuki graced him with a broad, shit-eating grin as he extended a hand.

“I’m Yuki Kanai, jackass extraordinaire. I’m a transfer student from Sapporo. And you are?”

Hesitantly, he reached over and shook Yuki’s hand.

“Uhhh...Shin Kensei. Class 3-C and Kendo captain.”

“Nice to meet you, Band-Aid. Guess we’ll be in the same class.”

Kensei pulled his hand back and examined it, looking for anything Yuki may have left on there. Then he looked sharply back at him.

“Wait, Band-Aid?”

Yuki shrugged.

“It was either that or Captain, and that’s just uninspired. I take pride in my nicknames.”

Doi returned to the conversation.

“Why? They’re not good.”

Yuki barked laughter.

“That’s the point, Sword! If they were good, you might actually like them, and we can’t have that, now can we?”

“Do you  _ want _ people to not like you?”

He quirked an eyebrow at her.

“Did I or did I not just introduce myself as ‘jackass extraordinaire?’ Extrapolate from there.”

“A fair point. So why’d you decide to torment us two in particular?”

“You’re the first person I saw who I recognized.”

“Oh, so I’ve been cursed by fate to suffer.”

“Yup! I’ll be a plague upon your existence.”

“Joyful.”

The trio spent the rest of the walk to the school gate making small talk and poking fun at each other. Soon, they arrived at school, and Doi split from them to go to her classroom on the third floor, while Yuki and Kensei stayed on the first floor, heading towards 3-C. Together, they entered the room, and saw there were a number of other students already there. Tadashi-sensei was also there, standing at the front of the room and coolly observing the class. He noticed them walk in, and turned to greet them.

“Ah, Kensei-kun, Kanai-kun. You,” he pointed to Kensei, “sit next to Ozaki-kun. You,” he pointed to Yuki, “sit behind Dosei-kun. We’ll be going to the opening ceremony soon, so don’t get too comfortable.”

Ozaki sat in the front of the room, and had long bronze hair worn in two braids. She was focused entirely on her phone to the exclusion of all else in the room. Dosei was a statuesque girl, seated in the second row and on the far left side of the room, next to the window. Her mid-back-length hair was bone white and curly, with two ringlets framing her angular face. Yuki and Kensei split up, each heading towards their own assigned seat.

Yuki leaned back in his chair, idly scrolling on his phone. Every so often, he would look up at Dosei, wondering about her. Clearly, she was related in some way to the Dosei Group; probably the heiress or something like that. But, even knowing that much, he was curious. Why, exactly, was a corporate princess so  _ built? _ She was staring off out the window, and Yuki could see her muscles straining at her blazer. He wasn’t exactly an expert, but he was fairly certain that wasn’t common amongst the children of the elite.

His musings on Dosei’s muscles were interrupted by Tadashi-sensei telling them to get up to go to the opening ceremony. Yuki set all four legs of his chair back down on the ground and stood up, moving to join the rest of the class. Dosei, however, remained still in her chair, still staring out the window. He moved in front of her desk and snapped his fingers, getting her attention.

“Time for the opening ceremony, Princess.”

She scoffed, but he could see a small flush coming to her face as she stood. With effort, he refrained from admiring her muscles and instead lined up with the rest of the class. Dosei took a place behind him, and the group began to move through the halls towards the auditorium. When they arrived, they all sat down and almost immediately began whispering to each other, discussing the myriad topics that are important to a Japanese high-schooler. Yuki picked up mentions of how dreamy some boy named Mizusei was, excitement over Akemi Kugane’s acting workshop on the 29th, and something about Ann Takamaki’s upcoming movie.

The discussion came to a halt as Principal Takami took the stage. She cleared her throat and brought the microphone to her face as she began to speak.

“Thank you, students, and good morning! It is good to see you all, new and returning students alike. I hope you have all had a warm welcome so far, and that you didn’t run into any troubles finding your classrooms and homeroom teachers.”

When nobody indicated anything to the contrary, a relieved smile came across her face.

“Well then! Let’s get on with the opening ceremony, so we can get to the important stuff, okay? You all probably already know who I am, but if you don’t, I’m Saeko Takami and I’m the principal here at Souzou Academy. It is my goal as principal to…”

As she continued on with her speech, Yuki zoned out and started looking around the auditorium. In arrangement, it was pretty standard, but it was decked out in clearly-expensive materials, showing off the school’s endowment. While his eyes roamed the fancy hardwood flooring and elaborate wall decorations, they caught on something rather out of place: a jagged white line, jutting out from the wall and into the air.

It was glowing, and thin, like the crack he’d seen on the train ride. As he watched in morbid curiosity and no small amount of fear, the crack slowly shifted. It seemed to wriggle around, stretching itself into new places and positions. Though its light fluctuated, it never surged like the one on the train. Bound by the fear of anything like that happening again, Yuki stared at the crack for the rest of the ceremony, completely ignoring anything else.

He was only moved from this stupor when Dosei tapped him on the shoulder as the class got up to return to class. Taken by surprise, Yuki shook his head to clear it and joined everyone else. Any questions about why he’d been so out of it were easily rebuffed with a smirk and a quip.

* * *

**Monday**

**April 11th, 202X**

**Afternoon**

The bell had rung, and it was time for lunch. As Yuki retrieved his own meal, a pre-made bento from his aunt, he asked if there were any good places to eat. What he heard in response was that the best places were already taken, but he could always try the cafeteria. Shrugging, he headed there, and ended up walking next to Kensei.

“So, the kendo club’s having tryouts on the 15th, right?”

The captain looked over cautiously.

“Yes, we are. Are you interested?”

Yuki shrugged.

“I mean, I did kendo at my old school, and I’ll need something to occupy my time. Might have to give it a shot.”

The conversation was cut off by them reaching their destination. Kensei split off to eat with the rest of the kendo club, and Yuki found himself a small little table at which to eat. As he got ready to dig in, somebody else sat themself down across from him. Looking up, he found that it was Doi.

“Hey there, Sword.”

“Kanai-senpai.”

“Is there a particular reason you’re sitting with me?”

“Well...you’re my senpai, but you’re also new to Souzou like me. So, I thought we could maybe be friends, work together to get to know the school? And you could help teach me about how schools work in general?”

Yuki considers this, and then nods sagely and points a finger into the sky theatrically as he speaks.

“I will agree to this, on one condition! Your nickname is no longer Sword...henceforth, you shall be known as Padawan. What say you, Padawan?”

Her mouth twitched into a smile.

“This is acceptable.”

The two spent the next few minutes of lunch eating their food and discussing the fancy new school they found themselves in. Eventually, however, that conversation came to a lull. Yuki decided to take the opportunity to get an answer to a question he’d been wondering about since his first night in Mokushi.

“Hey, do you know what’s up with the disappearances?”

He kept his face perfectly deadpan as she choked on the rice she had been eating and he leaned over to slap her on the back. When she was done, she spoke.

“Thanks for the near-death experience, Senpai.”

“Always happy to provide. So, my question?”

Saori sighed as she whipped out her phone and turned it so Yuki could see the screen. On it was a simple, black and white website.

Yuki read aloud. “AURORA: The Truth Will Dawn. The true culprits behind Polarity Syndrome must be exposed and brought to justice, by any means necessary. All righteous people are called to support AURORA against the enemies of humanity.”

He whistled. “Quite the pitch. But...uh, what’s Polarity Syndrome, and who are these ‘enemies of humanity’?”

“Polarity Syndrome is what AURORA’s calling these disappearances. Basically everyone else is still just calling them ‘the disappearances.’ People are going missing, but then they show up a few weeks later, with completely different personalities.”

“...Why call it Polarity Syndrome?”

“Well, I suppose ‘completely different’ isn’t really an accurate way to describe it. It’s more like it takes one part of their personality, and makes it into the whole thing. It polarizes them, you know?”

“Alright, that makes some sense. And these enemies?”

“Nobody knows for sure. AURORA’s been saying from the start that somebody’s behind Polarity Syndrome, but they’ve been awful vague about who exactly that is. Everybody thinks Dosei’s got some information on them or something, I don’t know why AURORA would hack them so much otherwise. Still, it’s fun keeping up with them and trying to figure out what’s going on, even if we can’t do anything about it.”

“Is there anything else I should know? Any way to make sure I don’t get Polarity Syndrome?”

“There’s only one constant across the cases: they’ve all reported hallucinating glowing cracks everywhere. Don’t know any way to stop it, though, so I guess you can’t really do anything about it if you start seeing those cracks.”

Glowing cracks. Like the crack he’d seen before the train crash. Like the crack he’d seen during the opening ceremony. Great.

“Huh. Good to know, I guess?”

Just then, the bell rang, and they hurried to put their lunches away and head to class.

* * *

Through the rest of the school day, Yuki did not see any glowing cracks. He did, however, grow more acquainted with his teachers and his classmates. Tadashi-sensei ran a tight ship, and wasn’t afraid to enforce the rules. However, he wasn’t a tyrant or an asshole, and he clearly knew the material and how to teach it. Yuki was looking forward to science class this year.

The other teachers varied. Aida-sensei was a tall, scarecrow-like man with straight gray hair cut close to his skull, who seemed to give approximately zero shits about anything, much less his math class. This was in sharp contrast to Shibukawa-sensei and Ienaga-sensei, who taught English and history, respectively. Shibukawa was youthful and new to teaching, but clearly enthusiastic. Ienaga was a cool old lady, both experienced and easygoing.

Yoshino-sensei and Fumihiko-sensei rounded the group off. Yoshino taught civics, and was a solidly-built man with a tendency towards harsh, incisive comments, be it about the people involved in government or the students in his class. Fumihiko, on the other hand, was short and curvy, and dressed fairly provocatively for a teacher. Yuki resolved to not let that distract him from learning Japanese in the coming year.

As for his classmates, there were a few notables. Through some conversation with the others, he had confirmed that the Dosei he sat behind was, in fact, the heiress to the Dosei Group, Natsuko Dosei. One of the folks he had talked to about this was the girl Kensei sat next to, one Hikari Ozaki, who was the president of the newspaper club and had fervently told him to come to her for any more rumors, either ones he’d heard or ones he wanted to know.

Most of his other classmates were vaguely interesting, but not enough for him to plan on getting to know them better - at least, not yet. It was only the first day of school, after all. Dosei and Ozaki, however, were intriguing individuals, and promised Yuki the opportunity to do one of his favorite things: solving a mystery. Dosei herself was a mystery, while Ozaki seemed very willing to help him look into any that popped up.

* * *

**Monday**

**April 11th, 202X**

**After School**

After the bell had rang and school was out for the day, it didn’t take long for Yuki to be out of the school and on his way home. He didn’t want to spend too much time loitering there; too much risk of being called in or otherwise cornered by Tadashi-sensei or the principal and having to hear more talk about how they were there and willing to support him in this trying time and he really should be going to therapy, come on, let’s go to the counselor. He just wanted to relax and procrastinate on his homework.

Thus, he was speedy as he vacated the premises. Being still relatively unfamiliar with the streets, he used his phone’s map app to navigate to Akijou Station. Yuki also took the chance to get a good look at the area Souzou was located in. As one might expect given the school’s wealth, it was located in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. However, if one looked into the alleyways, there was some graffiti and other su -  _ oh God-dammit another fucking crack? _

This one seemed to have formed before Yuki’s eyes as he admired one particularly inspired piece of graffiti in an alleyway. Stepping back in shock, he watched as it moved from the ground and up the wall of a building over the course of a few seconds. Like all the others, it was luminescent and white and thin. After recovering from his shock, Yuki stepped forth and examined it from up close.

“What the hell are you?” he muttered to himself.

Cautiously, he moved his hand closer to the crack. At about two inches away, it began to tingle, as though it had been asleep and was just now waking up. When he pulled it back, the feeling receded. To test it out, he moved his face closer, and was suddenly feeling pins and needles all over it. He immediately pulled backwards, because that was very much not a fun time.

Yuki spent a few seconds just looking at the crack, before making a decision. He reached out, pushing through the pins and needles sensation which intensified as he approached the crack. Then, he touched his fingers to it. For one long moment, the world seemed to come to a halt. All the ambient noise of the city fell silent, from the cars speeding by to the chatter of adolescents wandering about after school. Then, with a great discordant note and a surge of impossible color, the crack opened wide, and Yuki fell in.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyone who correctly identifies where the title is from will be entitled to one (1) fun fact about this story.
> 
> check me out on [tumblr](https://cogandstar.tumblr.com), where I, among other things, make shitposts about and post additional content for Persona: Shatter. recently, i've put up a spotify playlist for Yuki, as well as a map of Mokushi with the borders and names of the wards.
> 
> thanks for reading! next chapter will go up on Sunday, February 7th, see y'all there!


	3. Luminous Beings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuki enters into a world of his own mind, solves a conflict, and develops his power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warnings: plague, suicide/self-harm discussion

**???**

Yuki fell forward, and nearly slammed face-first into the ground. However, he managed to extend his hands out, causing him to glance to the side, and slam shoulder-first into the ground. For a good few moments, he lay there upon the hard ground, just feeling the pain. Then, Yuki put his scratched-up hands on the ground, ignoring the stinging pain, and pushed himself up.

Where he had come from, the crack was gone. Not simply back to its thin white state, but completely gone. Frustrated, he stood up and turned to examine his new location. The ground was not the cement and asphalt of the urban jungle he had just been in; it was instead the dusty red dirt of a mesa, straight out of the Western movies his dad had liked. The sky was not the bright, clear blue it was in Mokushi, but instead was the color of printer paper, decorated with little dots of impossibly dark black, including one particularly large one, around the size of the sun. 

There was one thing he could see in the great big desert, other than the various mountains and mesas: a small town, not too far away from his location. From what he could see, this town fit right into the general Western aesthetic of this strange place. With little else to do, Yuki began the short trek to the town. He clambered down from his vantage point, and strode forth across the dirt and rocks.

Soon, he had arrived at the town. Despite the alien nature of the sky, the black sun was very, very hot, and he was sweating by the time he got there. The town had a large, wooden gate, which was barred shut. However, when he touched it, the bar swung up and the gate swung open, completely on their own. Shrugging at his good fortune, Yuki stepped past the threshold and into the town proper.

Only a few steps in, he regretted this decision, as two intimidating figures blocked his path. They were both identical in appearance, and two meters tall. They were lanky, with too-long arms and legs, not to mention the frankly disturbing proportions of their necks. Over their featureless, pitch-black skin, they wore plain black slacks into which their bone-colored shirts, featuring black shoulder boards and large, shiny golden stars mounted on the chest, were tucked. The ensemble was topped off by black Stetsons, plain white surgical masks, and black cowboy boots.

The one to his right, which Yuki mentally named Righty, was the first to speak, in a heavily distorted voice.

“Stop right there! This town is under quarantine, you’re gonna have to come with us.”

Yuki frowned.

“Quarantine?”

This time, Lefty answered.

“Yes, the Doctor has instituted strict quarantine procedures, to solve the plague. You will have to be put into isolation, like everyone else. If you resist, we will have to use force.”

“Ah. That doesn’t sound fun, so I think I’ll head along with you fine gentlemen.”

“Good,” Righty grunted.

He pulled out a pair of handcuffs and gestured for Yuki to put his wrists out to let him cuff him. He complied, and the two inhuman cowboys led him through the streets, presumably to wherever he would be isolated. As they walked, he decided to examine the town. It seemed to have a fairly strict color scheme; everything but the reddish-brown ground was black and white. The planks of wood, the paint and lettering on the signs, all of them were the colors of coal and bone.

All of them, except for one building in particular. It was as though all the colors the rest of the town was missing had been all saved for this one building. The riotous mix kind of hurt to look at, especially the four foot tall letters which read SALOON in an obnoxious, eye-piercing yellow. However, amidst the chaos, there were two colors which were particularly prominent: red and cyan, like the lenses of 3D glasses. Yuki’s eyes looked to the doors, just as they slammed open with a wooden  _ thud _ and a figure stepped through.

His eyes went to the newcomer’s face, and was shocked to find that it was his own, with the sole difference of eye color; his doppelganger’s eyes were a bright gold color, in contrast to Yuki’s own sky-blue. Everything else in his face was the same: his dark red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, his thin, rectangular glasses were perched upon his angular nose, his fine cheekbones were wider than his pointed chin.

When Yuki’s eyes went below the face, he saw the biggest difference in their appearance: the doppelganger’s outfit was significantly different from Yuki’s. It started with the tight red shirt with floral patterns embroidered in cyan, which was left unbuttoned to his midriff. The differences continued as his eyes wandered down, finding a plaid, mid-thigh-length skirt and a pair of black thigh-high cowboy boots.

“Well, howdy there, boys.” He spoke in a flanged version of Yuki’s own voice, and in a theatrical manner.

“I see you’ve got yourself a new catch! Unfortunately, I think I’m gonna have to snag him for myself. Got some one-on-one conversations I gotta have with Mr. Schoolboy there.”

“We cannot release him, he must go into isolation. Doctor’s orders.”

The doppelganger’s eyes narrowed angrily. He formed one hand into a finger-gun, and took aim at Lefty. Then, he mimed firing it, and in a flash of light, Lefty’s head was blown off. Yuki and Righty both recoiled, and Yuki stared at the creature’s corpse as it dissolved into black mist which floated to the sky.

“That was not a request.”

Snarling, Righty shoved Yuki towards him.

“Fine, then! But the Doctor ain’t gonna be too happy about this!”

“You think I give a shit about that wet blanket’s opinion? Get lost, cowboy.”

With that, the doppelganger grabbed Yuki and ushered him into the Saloon, while Righty stormed off.

* * *

After breaking and removing the handcuffs, the doppelganger sat Yuki down at the bar and told him to order whatever he wanted, while he went off to...somewhere to “get some fun” for him, whatever that meant. So, he was left staring into the face of the bartender, who was dressed exactly like you’d expect an old-timey bartender to dress like, complete with the handlebar moustache. Unfortunately, he was also like one of the cowboy creature-people-things that had been manhandling him, except instead of pitch black, his skin was just entirely white. Beyond the handlebar moustache, his face was completely featureless.

“So, what’ll you have?” His voice had the same distortion as Righty and Lefty’s.

“Could I just get some water?”

Bartender shrugged as he filled up a glass.

“If that’s what you want, sure. Boss said to give you whatever you wanted.”

“Boss?”

“One who brought you in here. Yu’s in charge of this here saloon, and runs it damn well, if I do say so myself.”

Bartender slid over the glass of water, but anything else he would say was interrupted by a hand on Yuki’s shoulder, and a familiar flanged voice.

“I certainly try. Now, do you mind leaving us? I would like to speak with our guest privately.”

“Sure thing, Boss.” 

In an instant, he was on the opposite side of the bar, serving more of the white creatures. Yuki turned to look at his doppelganger, who had sat down to his left at the bar. For a good few seconds, the two simply stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Eventually, the doppelganger gave in.

“C’mon, aren’t you gonna ask me what’s going on? You’re supposed to be freaking out and wondering where the hell you are!”

“Awful bold of you to assume I can’t do those things quietly.”

Doppelganger scrunched up his nose.

“Yeah, but you can ask questions now! Why aren’t you asking them?”

“Spite.”

His golden eyes began to glow slightly, and the same hand that had blown Lefty’s head off rested itself on Yuki’s neck.

“Are you  _ quite _ sure you want to be spiting me?” He spoke in a low, threatening tone.

Internally, Yuki was panicking, and he was pretty sure his heart was beating at somewhere around 150 beats per minute. Externally, he kept his face smooth and disinterested, or at least tried to. He grabbed the doppelganger’s hand and pried it off his neck, putting it back into the doppelganger’s lap.

“Hands off, please and thank you.”

“Ohoho! A bold move! I  _ like _ it. Well, if you’re not gonna ask the questions, I guess I’m just gonna have to give you the answers, whether you like it or not! So, listen up, bud. I’m you! Well, my name’s Yu, but I’m also you. At least, I’m part of you: the better part of you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Look around! I’m the part of you that makes you happy, the part that takes leaps of faith, the part that doesn’t give a shit what happens as long as you’re having fun! So, I’ve got this here saloon, because this town is dying and there’s nothing we can do about it, so why not have fun while we can, baby?”

Yuki did, in fact, look around. He saw that the saloon was filled with more of the white-skinned creatures, and they were all partying hard. There was plenty of alcohol in plenty of varieties to go around, and it certainly went around. Several of them were shaped like women, wearing corsets and corsets only, and they were scattered around the saloon, running gambling stations, serving drinks, and dancing for the benefit of onlookers. There were also a good number of buff men, wearing only tight pants and bowties, doing basically all the same things.

“Why, exactly, is the town dying?”

Yu shrugged.

“Plague.”

“Plague?”

“Plague, man, you need anything else? We can’t stop it, whatever that shithead Ki says, so what the fuck does it matter?”

“Ki?”

He grimaced.

“Ki’s the, uh, other part of you. The worse part. He’s the one in charge of those cowboys who were gonna put you in quarantine, they call him the Doctor. He doesn’t even know what the plague does, but he’s still forcing everyone into quarantine, because ‘we can’t take any risks’ and ‘we need to be extremely cautious’ and ‘he has everything under control.”

When Yu talked about Ki’s reasoning, he made air quotes with his fingers and adopted a mocking tone of voice.

“Huh. So, I think I’ve got one question left: how the hell do I get out of here?”

Yu threw his head back and cackled.

“Oh, you’re serious? Well, you can’t. At least, not on your own. But...if you were to help me get rid of Ki, I could be persuaded to help you leave.”

“You want me to get rid of...a part of myself?”

He shrugged.

“I mean, yeah. That part kind of sucks, why wouldn’t you want to get rid of it? I’m the only part you actually need. So, will you do it or not?”

Yuki sat there for a while, considering. Should he side with Yu against Ki and get out of here? Or what, be stuck here in this town until he dies? Then an idea occurred to him. If Yu could get him out, then Ki almost certainly could too. Maybe he didn’t have to side with Yu, and it was definitely possible, if not probable, that Yu was misrepresenting Ki so as to get his help. With new resolve, he spoke.

“I don’t think I have all the information I need to make that decision. I think I’m gonna go talk with Ki, see what he’s about, and then we’ll see which one of you two I really need.”

“Really? Well, you do you, I guess. How about you ring the bell at the town square when you make your choice, so I know to come and rock Ki’s shit?”

“Sounds good to me. Have fun with your...salooning.”

And so, Yuki left the saloon.

* * *

After a few minutes of wandering, Yuki had found his way to a building which was taller than all the others, but still fit the black and white color scheme. Above the doors was a large sign, bearing the words TOWN HALL in great big letters. Milling around the entrance were a number of the cowboy creatures from before, all of them on guard for trespassers. Almost immediately after he walked up to the town hall, one of the cowboys noticed him, and cried out.

As six of them fanned out in front of him, pointing revolvers at him, he lifted his hands up in surrender.

“Woah, guys, I’m not here to cause any trouble. I just want to speak with the Doctor.”

“Did Yu send you?”

“Nah, he actually didn’t like me coming here. Pretty sure he’d rather me and the Doctor not speak. And, since I know y’all and Yu don’t like each other, it seems to me that you’d want me to talk with the Doc. I mean, if Yu doesn’t want it, it must be good for y’all, or at least bad for him, right?”

There was a long silence.

“Alright, come with us, and keep your hands where we can see them.”

The sextet kept their guns trained on him as they formed into a circle around him and led him into the town hall, which was significantly larger on the inside than the outside. It’s decor was an eclectic mix of sleek, smooth metal and plastic and the same Western aesthetic as the rest of the town; the walls were mostly wooden planks reinforced with metal but the floor was smooth white tile. It was illuminated by harsh white LEDs which reminded him of a hospital. Adding to the hospital resemblance was the overpowering smell of disinfectant filling the air.

His ruminations on the room’s appearance were interrupted by the  _ whoosh _ of doors sliding open and the  _ click click _ of boots on tile as a man wearing a mad scientist’s get up walked in: a Howie-style lab coat, fully buttoned, a bone-white surgical cap, mask and set of gloves, and even some goggles over his blood red eyes. Despite the myriad of things covering his face, Yuki was sure that this guy looked exactly like him in everything but the fashion and the eyes.

“Doctor Ki, I presume?”

A cold voice rang out, flanged yet monotone. “You presume correctly. Orderlies, return to your duties. I will take this patient to my office.”

All six cowboys nodded and turned on their heels, walking out the door. As they left, silence fell over the room. After a few seconds of just staring, Ki whipped around and began walking further into the building, beckoning sharply with his hand for Yuki to follow. He jogged a bit to catch up, and then decided to break the silence.

“So, Yu told me that you’re me? Or at least a part of me?”

“Given that this is our first conversation, that is impossible.”

“Not you, Yu! Y’know, the saloon guy. The other part of me?”

“Ah. The  _ hedonist _ .” Ki spat the word as though it were a slur.

“Yes, him. So are you a part of me? If so, which part?”

“I am your caution. I am your reason. I am your fear. I am your self-preservation. I am the one that ensures you think with this head,” he pointed at his temple, “and not the other. To put it succinctly, I am the part of you that keeps you  _ safe _ . With my guidance, you may not know all the pleasures of the world, but you will at least be alive to remember the ones you do know.”

“Quite the spiel. Would I be correct in assuming that you  _ could _ help me get out of here, but only if I help you get rid of Yu?”

“You would be. Let us discuss further in my office.”

The door to the office was sealed shut, with no handles visible. There was, however, a number pad to the right of it. Ki peeled off his right glove, and punched in a rather long passcode. The door did not open; instead, the pad flipped up, revealing a touchscreen, where Ki placed his hand to be scanned. He then pricked his finger on the needle that revealed itself before regressing into the wall after acquiring the blood. Next, he put his right and then his left eye against a scanner.

“Open door, authorization code Orpheus Alpha Gamma Fehu Nine Seven Thirteen.”

A few seconds later, the door slid open and Ki swiftly pulled Yuki inside with his still-gloved hand before the door slammed shut forcefully. As the doctor moved across the office to behind his desk, removing his gloves, mask, and cap in the process, Yuki just looked at him in incredulity.

“That was...a lot of security.”

Ki shrugged. “I’m your caution, remember? Security is part of my remit.”

“God, you talk like a square.”

“I talk like a sophisticated and productive member of society, thank you very much. Now let us discuss our plan of attack against the hedonist.”

“Woah, woah, woah, you’re getting ahead of yourself. I haven’t agreed to help you.”

“What, are you gonna help  _ him _ ? That self-destructive asshole?”

“To be perfectly frank, I’m not sure I want to help either of you guys. Getting rid of an entire part of me sounds, well, not perfectly healthy to say the least.”

“Really, you’re gonna talk about healthy? You? The guy whose response to his mom dying and him having to move across the country was to beat the shit out of some high schoolers in an alleyway?”

“They threw the first punch.”

“Because you antagonized them! On purpose, because  _ you wanted to beat the shit out of somebody _ . And that’s far from the only complaint I have with you! Your response to surviving a massive train crash was to insist on going to school the next day instead of taking a break! That’s just  _ this week _ ! For years, you’ve been behaving like a suicidal lemming, hurling yourself into danger after danger saying it’s ‘because it’s fun’ or ‘because it’ll make a good story’ but those are all  _ excuses _ ! You’ve been doing it because somewhere along the line you stopped giving a shit about your own life!”

Ki was standing, with his hands gripping his desk so tightly it was beginning to crack and break. His eyes were glowing like little red stars, piercing into Yuki, who had, as Ki’s monologue continued, backed up until his back was flush against the door. Ki’s shoulders heaved up and down with his now-heavy breaths, and he drew one of his hands away from the broken desk and up to his face.

“It’s just,” he began, words muffled by the hand, “I have been  _ trying _ to get you to listen to me. And you do, sometimes, about the little things. How many times have you not done something because you’re scared of failing miserably about it? That’s me. But, when it gets to the big things, like your actual  _ life _ , you never do. I just want to have some control, to keep you safe. And if getting rid of Yu is what it takes, then I’ll do that. But I can’t do that without your help!”

There was silence. In some distant part of his brain, Yuki noticed that he was shaking and there were tears in his eyes. The rest of his brain was too busy processing Ki’s rant, and struggling to come up with an argument against it. He wanted to say that the doctor was wrong, that he did care about his own life, but hearing the words he could not deny their truth.

“...You’re right. I’ve been putting myself in danger because I didn’t really see a point in living. To be honest, I think I still don’t see a point. But I’m willing to work with you, and to give it a shot. To actually try and stay alive so I can find a point, eventually. However, I can’t do that if I’m living like this,” he gestured to their surroundings, “in a monochrome, quadruple-locked cage of my own design. And I still don’t think getting rid of an entire part of me is a good idea. So, here’s what we’re gonna do.”

* * *

After a long and emotionally draining conversation, the two of them left the Town Hall-slash-hospital. They walked, side by side, through the streets of the town, until they reached the square, centered around a well. Also featured prominently was a golden bell, suspended over a stone plinth. Ki and Yuki headed to that bell, and stood on either side of it. Yuki put his hand on the bell’s rope, ready to pull on it to ring the bell. He looked at Ki.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

He seized the rope fully, and yanked it downwards. A low, clear note rang out across the town, like a church bell, and they waited. It didn’t take long before Yu strode forth, his spurs clink-clanking on the dusty ground and a wide grin on his face.

“Finally! The great Doctor is out of his hospital! I’ll take pleasure in grinding you into the dust, Ki.”

It was Yuki that responded. “No, you won’t.”

Yu stared, and cocked his head. “What? Did the wet blanket somehow manage to convince you to choose him? Eh, that just means I’ll have to make sure you can’t help him.  _ Psi _ !”

Spirals and spheres in an array of discordant colors spun into existence, slamming into Yuki. He screamed in pain as his head was assaulted by what felt like a million white-hot knives digging into his skull. Dimly, as he fell to his knees and clutched his head, he heard the sounds of battle between Yu and Ki, though their voices were now much more distorted.

Eventually, the pain subsided and his vision unblurred, and he was able to get a good look at the scene. Where Yu had been standing, there was now a ten-meter tall humanoid figure, with the head and hands (paws?) of a leopard, and a dolphin’s fins along their arms and back. Wrapped around their body were several animated vines, moving around and serving as whips. They seemed to be directed in some way by the pinecone-topped staff which the figure twirled around in their hands like a baton.

In fact, the leopard-headed figure’s whole demeanor reminded Yuki much more of a performer than a combatant, twirling and flourishing and bouncing all around the town square. Meanwhile, their foe was stolid and still, mind apparently focused purely on hurling attacks against the leopard-headed figure. Though, to be fair, the still one looked like they were chained down to a boulder, so that may have been out of their control. Where the performer had the head of a leopard, the still one was entirely headless, and instead of a pinecone staff - thyrsus, he remembered - they were wielding a lyre, plucking the strings and producing notes which, somehow, resulted in discordant spheres like the one who’d hit Yuki, as well as waves of green light which seemed to give them strength.

For a moment, Yuki simply stared slack-jawed at the scene, which resembled one of the fight scenes from Aunty’s animes more than anything he’d expect to see in actuality. Then, he shook his head and drew himself up to his full height, taking in a large breath.

“ _ Stop _ !”

Both of them halted in the middle of their motions, and the energies they were bringing to bear on each other fizzled out in the air, as they turned their heads to look at him.

“ **What?** ” Leopard hissed out, and their voice, though heavily distorted, let him realize that this was, in fact, Yu.

His suspicions of Headless being Ki were confirmed by his own voice when he spoke.

“ **Why should I not destroy Yu right now? After all, he did attack you, Yuki.** ”

“Because if you destroy him, you will be harming me, Ki.”

Ki growled, but relented. Yuki turned his attention to Yu.

“I didn’t come here to see you destroyed, Yu, same for Ki. I am here because I have made my choice, and my choice is to live with the entirety of myself. I’m you, and you’re me - both of you. If I got rid of either of you, I would be cutting out half of myself. I refuse to do that. I know that I’ve been living without a point, without a purpose beyond finding instant pleasure. I still don’t quite know what the point is of living, but I promise you I will do my best to find it. This struggle will be hard, and it may never end, but I choose it of my own free will. So. Will you help me?”

Yu stared balefully at Yuki. He looked at Ki. Back at Yuki. Then, he growled out an affirmative, bowing his head.

Yuki smiled. “Thank you. I’m not gonna give that entire speech again, but all those same things apply to you too, Ki. Help me out?”

He nodded as much as he could without having a head, and then looked at Yu. The look was returned, and the leopard-headed man walked towards the headless man on the rock. The two beckoned for him to join them. Unsure of what was happening, he complied. In puffs of blue light, there were suddenly two halves of a handheld mirror, each of them holding one. Yu’s was tinted gold, and Ki’s was tinted red. They both held out their half to Yuki, who took them and, on instinct, put them together.

Blue fire erupted into being at the point of contact, and quickly spread across all three of their bodies. Despite his panic at the sudden fire across his body, Yuki was unable to move from that spot. It did not hurt, but it did tingle, intensity increasing even as it spread. Yu and Ki’s bodies dissolved into motes of light, which spiralled together and seemed like they were forming a rough silhouette of a horned man. As the tingling reached a fever pitch, Yuki’s vision blurred as the motes gleamed in unison. Some unknown instinct compelled him to speak, shaping a word whose significance he did not know.

“ _ PERSONA! _ ”

The fire surged, and then died down, leaving him looking at...a very interesting sight. Cyan light formed a rough, geometric wireframe of a ten-foot-tall human body with the addition of a bull’s horns. Filling in this wireframe were a thousand thousand floating shards of glass in all the colors of the rainbow, constantly shifting about and never remaining in one place. A thyrsus, like the one Yu had wielded, floated in a loose orbit around it as it reclined insouciantly in the air.

The wireframe-person moved, cocking its head and managing to convey the message of a smirk despite its face being simply numerous shards of glass. It then spoke, in a hollow, twanging voice that was simultaneously masculine and feminine, and seemed to come from inside Yuki’s own head.

_ I am thou, thou art I. From the sea of thy soul I come. I am Zagreus, Lord of Rebirth, and I’ll be fightin’ by your side in the struggle t’ recreate yourself, you hear? _

“‘Zagreus the horned baby, who by himself climbed the heavenly throne of Zeus,’” Yuki quoted from one of the old books he’d read with his mom as a kid. The  _ Dionysiaca _ , he thought it was.

_ Quite right. Now, may I suggest fixin’ yourself up b’fore this place comes crashin’ down on us? _

“Well, I unfortunately don’t have any first aid equipment with me, and I somehow doubt that could treat whatever psychic bullshit Yu hit me with even if I did.”

Zagreus scoffed.

_ You just gotta use my power, pardner. Follow your instincts, like you done when you brought me forth. _

“Alrighty then... _ Dia! _ ”

Zagreus waved a hand, and the thyrsus swirled around above Yuki, raining down viridian light which, somehow, soothed his pain and stopped the nosebleed that he hadn’t even noticed he had.

_ Good job, pardner. I’ll tell you how to get out of here. As fer explanations, I think your Velvet friends will be more helpful than me. _

With that, Zagreus disappeared in a flash of blue fire. After a moment of panic, Yuki heard their voice in his head, speaking reassurances. Looking down at his hands, he saw that the gold and red halves of the mirror had fused into one compact mirror, which was now cyan. Instead of his own reflection, it showed the face of Zagreus.

“What’s this mirror?”

_ It shows your acceptance of both sides of yourself. You can use it ta summon me. For now, put it away. It’ll come back t’ you ifin’ you ask for it. _

Following the guidance of the mysterious entity (which, given it was talking in his head and was produced by the fusion of Yu and Ki, was probably some part of his psyche manifesting physically), he folded the mirror closed and let it disappear into blue flames, before walking towards the town gates. Unfortunately, at the exit from the town square, he was blocked by two of the cowboys, whom he mentally dubbed Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.

“Stop right there!”

“No.”

They brandished guns at him, but Yuki was strangely calm. Not from a lack of care for his own life, but because he somehow knew that he could take them both easily. His mirror burned itself into existence in his right hand, ready to be flipped open at a moment’s notice.

_ Call upon my strength _ , Zagreus whispered,  _ and follow your instincts, pardner. _

“Persona!  _ Psi _ !”

The horned entity manifested, and with a jab of their thyrsus unleashed spirals of discordant colors at Tweedle Dee. Yuki took advantage of the cowboy’s moment of shock, rushing towards him. Somehow, he’d found himself wielding a  _ bokken _ in either hand, which he slammed into the creature’s stomach and throat simultaneously. His attack, combined with that of Zagreus, knocked Dee down to the ground, where he dissolved into black mist. Yuki then turned to Tweedle Dum, who stared at them in shock and anger.

“I’ll kill you!” 

As he spoke, his voice grew more and more distorted, and in an explosion of black, red, and blue, he became something very different from what he’d just been. Instead of a cowboy with monochrome black skin, he was now a pile of viscous semi-animate ooze, somehow with a mouth and two ruby-red eyes.

_ Don’t use your sticks, it won’t work. _

“Thanks for the info... _ Psi! _ ”

Tweedle Dum reeled back at the psychokinetic attack - as much as a pile of ooze can reel back, anyway - and then hurled itself forth to strike. It slammed itself into Yuki’s chest, sending him coughing and staggering away. Gritting his teeth, he growled a command for Zagreus to attack again. It struck home, and Tweedle Dum faded away into the same black mist as his compatriot. With a muttered  _ Dia _ , the pain in his chest cleared up.

“Thanks, Zagreus.”

_ Ain’t no need to thank me. We’re pardners, ‘member? I’m you, you’re me. _

“Fair point. Also, why do I have  _ bokken _ now?”

_ You’ve accepted yourself. Now, in this world of hearts and minds, you’ll look like how you think a hero looks. _

Now that he looked closely at himself, he saw that he was in quite the get-up, which seemed to take some cues from both Yu and Ki. He had an open white lab coat, over a tight cyan button-up shirt with a red floral pattern. The shirt was tucked into a pair of tight white pants, which went further down into black snakeskin cowboy boots. Around his waist was a thick belt of the same black snakeskin, which had several pouches and “holsters” for his two  _ bokken _ . His hands bore a pair of scarlet fingerless gloves, and around his neck there was a bandana of the same color. Literally topping off the outfit was the plain black cowboy hat atop his head.

“Huh. Stylish.”

With that, he dismissed Zagreus and set out to find the place he had entered this world from. When he, clambering up the rusty red rocks, reached it, he saw that the crack was back, thin and white. As he put his hand to it, it flickered into activity. There was the sound of shattering glass, and Yuki was pulled forth in a flash of impossible colors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am very proud of this one. 
> 
> once again, if anyone guesses where the chapter title is from, i'll reveal a fun fact about the development of this story.
> 
> please give me feedback and/or predictions, either in the comments or on my [tumblr](https://cogandstar.tumblr.com)! thank you so much for reading!
> 
> see y'all next time, which will be Sunday, February 21st!


	4. Velvet and Vermillion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuki gets a pet(?), forms a bond, and speaks with supernatural entities.

**Monday**

**April 11th, 202X**

**After School**

Fortunately, Yuki was deposited back in the alley he’d left from. Unfortunately, it was raining very heavily and Yuki didn’t have an umbrella. For a bit, he just sat there, feeling the cold rain pour over him and letting the uncomfortable sensation ground him in reality. His attention was stolen by a large crow that landed on the ground in front of him. It hopped around, searching for trinkets and food. Smiling, Yuki reached into his pocket and pulled out two things: a granola bar and a fifty-yen coin. Breaking off and crumbling one corner of the bar, he threw it in the crow’s direction.

As the crow looked at him, he realized that one of its eyes was scarred over, and apparently nonfunctional. Humming in concern for the creature, he gestured for it to eat the loose granola. When it seemed reluctant, he showed it the coin, before pointing again at the granola when it moved as though to grab the coin. After a moment of staring at him, the crow went to eat the granola. Yuki was no expert on crow body language, but it seemed mildly annoyed.

Still, he smiled affectionately at the bird eating its meal. While crows weren’t his favorite animal - that title went to rattlesnakes - they were certainly up there, along with butterflies, raccoons, and pigeons. So, when the one-eyed crow finished eating and immediately flew over to him and began pecking at the hand holding the coin, he simply laughed and handed it over. The crow was very satisfied with its conquest, hopping around proudly with it in its beak.

Yuki dared to reach over to pet the crow, who, after a moment of seeming indecision, allowed it. In return, he pulled out another coin and gave it to the crow. He spent a minute petting the bird, before he decided that he needed to get up and go home. Aunty was probably worrying about where he was. To his surprise, the bird flew up and landed on his shoulder when he stood, and remained there as he began to walk.

“What, do you like me or something?” he asked, looking askance at it.

It simply responded with a vigorous caw.

“Alrighty then, if you insist. Do you have a name?”

Another, softer caw.

“Would you like a name?”

Caw-caw.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes.”

He hummed to himself as he tried to think of a suitable name. Having always loved mythology, he tried to think of a mythical crow that made sense. He dismissed naming it either Huginn or Muninn, on the grounds that those went in pairs and he only had the one, and the mythical Huginn and Muninn were ravens anyway and therefore unworthy of having their names given to a crow. His next thought was the Goetic demon Raum, who took the form of a crow, but this too was thrown out, mainly because naming a crow after a demon lord felt much too edgy. A third idea came to mind, and Yuki was inclined to like it. It was suitably mythological, not too edgy, and actually referred to a crow, not some other, inferior corvid.

“How about Yata? Like Yatagarasu, but without the -garasu, because we don’t need to have crow in your name. That’d be like naming your dog Bigdog or something. What do you think?”

The newly-named Yata preened, apparently pleased with the name.

“Good. Oh, looks like I’m at the station. Don’t think they’ll let me bring you in there, buddy. How about I give you another coin, and you meet me tomorrow morning?”

He handed Yata a coin, one hundred yen this time, and let him flutter down onto the ground. He waved goodbye, before stepping down to the subway station.

* * *

As he rode the train back to Domaku, Yuki played with a coin, doing the tricks he’d learned in middle school from his Uncle Katsuichi. He practiced his palming, his retention vanish, and his coin walk. Having built up some confidence, he began practicing his muscle pass, trying to launch the coin into the air from his left palm without moving his hand up or down, simply using his hand muscles to do so. Yuki’s coin went flying upwards a few inches. When he went to catch it with his right hand, however, a whispered  _ Howdy _ from in his own head shocked him into slapping it down onto the ground.

_ You didn’t forget about me, didja? _ spoke Zagreus, amused.

Trying not to be heard talking to himself, Yuki muttered a negative.

_ You don’t gotta talk out loud for me t’ hear you, pardner. _

_ That would have been good to know beforehand. _

_ Really? There weren’t nobody else back in the Arena. You didn’t need t’ hide your conversation with me. Now you do. _

Yuki blew a breath out through his nose.

_ You have a point. So, what’s up, Zag? _

_ Just wanted t’ give you a reminder, make sure you don’t think I’ve up and left you. _

His mouth twisted into a smile.

_ Good to hear. I’m curious, can I still summon you, even if I’m not...wherever that place was? _

_ Yessiree. As easy as bringing out that mirror you got and flipping it open. But, uh, I recommend that you don’t do that here. Wouldn’t want to cause a fuss. _

_ Quite. Does that go for the get-up, too? _

_ Yup. Here in the physical world, it comes an’ goes with the mirror. Back where I come from, you’ll have it on by default. _

_ Alright. Thanks for telling me. I’ll let you know if I need anything, Zag. _

_ Take care, pardner. _

Somehow, Yuki got the feeling that Zagreus was tipping a non-existent cowboy hat to him. Smiling and shaking his head, he reached around to find his dropped coin, and resumed his practice of coin tricks until the train arrived at his stop. As he exited the train, he cocked an eyebrow at what looked like the outline of a glowing blue door in the middle of the station. When Zagreus remained studiously quiet, Yuki decided it was a problem for another day, and kept walking out of the station and towards his apartment building.

Waving to the receptionist as he walked past, he got into the elevator. When the doors slid open to the seventh floor, he was greeted by Aunty Chihiro’s concerned face. The two of them blinked stupidly at each other for a few seconds, before she pulled him in for a bone-crushing hug, which he returned with equal force. 

“Where have you been?” she hissed.

“Eh, introspecting, making friends, that kinda thing. Sorry to worry you, Aunty.”

She released him from the hug and turned around, leading him towards their apartment.

“You better be! And you better tell me about these friends you were making over dinner.”

“Sure thing, Aunty. What’re we eating, anyways?”

“Beef bowl.”

Yuki exaggeratedly licked his lips.

“Yum.”

As the two of them entered the apartment, Chihiro made him sit down at the dining room table while she began to gather the ingredients for beef bowl. This did not stop her from interrogating him about what he’d been doing and what new friends he’d been making. Yuki told her about Saori, as well as the folks he’d talked to in his own class. She seemed only mildly surprised that the Dosei heiress was in his class, and told him a story about seeing her and two of her friends in the weirdest parts of the conglomerate’s headquarters. He also mentioned Yata, providing an explanation for why there were some scratches on his uniform blazer’s left shoulder.

“You have an interesting taste in friends, Yuki. First-years and crows?”

“As Dad would say,” he raised a finger and adopted a deeper, growling voice, “‘A man must always be unique. A man who simply follows the pre-blazed path is not, truly, a man at all, but a coward.’”

She cracked up at his impression, before taking a moment to gather herself.

“He would say something like that, wouldn’t he?”

She made eye contact with him.

“He’d be proud of you, kid. So would your mom.”

He felt a warmth rise in his chest and his cheeks, and favored Chihiro with a broad, genuine smile.

“I hope so.”

Chihiro walked over to the table, bearing two steaming bowls of beef, onions, and rice. The conversation slowed, but didn’t stop, as they ate their dinners. Eventually, it turned towards discussion of what he was doing in school. He expressed his opinions of his teachers, particularly his liking of Tadashi-sensei, and Chihiro took it all in, occasionally interjecting with jokes and observations of her own. As he ran out of teachers, she put down her chopsticks and opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again to speak.

“And the counselor? Have you seen him yet?”

Yuki froze, before relaxing. He had resolved to get better, and seeing a counselor sounded like a solid first step. And, he reminded himself, he should be able to tell if Matsumoto-sensei was just giving him bunk fairly easily. After all, his mom had been a therapist, and a damn good one at that.

“Well, I didn’t see him today, but...I told you I’d done some introspection?” At her nod, he continued.

“Yeah, and I kind of realized that I’ve been a bit cavalier with my own wellbeing recently. I’d like to work on that, so I think I’m gonna see about talking to him tomorrow at school.”

Chihiro’s face brightened considerably at that.

“Good! I was gonna recommend seeing a therapist of some sort anyways, after your mom’s death, and then the way you were acting after the train crash...I was worried. It’s good to hear that you’re working on yourself, kid.”

Yuki winced at the memory of his previous behavior.

“Yeah, sorry about yelling at you yesterday.”

“Apology accepted. Hey, the second episode of Featherman Omega’s airing this Wednesday, you wanna watch it together?”

That uncomfortable subject of conversation ended, the aunt and nephew contented themselves with eating their meal and discussing the previous episode of the anime, the first anime in the Featherman franchise. When they finished their food, Chihiro told him to go take a hot shower and then relax. He was happy to do so, and the combination of good food, leftover warmth from the shower, and how tired he was from the whole accepting-the-entirety-of-himself-in-an-alternate-reality thing, made sure his bed’s sweet siren song of sleep was able to claim him within minutes.

* * *

**???**

The first things he felt were the hum of an engine, the sound of a piano, and the sensation of forward motion. Then, he opened his eyes and saw that he was back in the royal blue ambulance with the ethereal nurse Felix and the long-nosed old man Igor. They both noticed him, and an unnaturally wide grin spread across Igor’s face.

“Welcome to the Velvet Room,” intoned Igor.

“Hi! It’s great to see you again!” chimed Felix.

“Good to see you too.”

“It seems, dear guest, that you have faced your Shadows, and accepted them into your heart, granting you the power of your inner self.”

“Shadows? Is that what those doppelgangers are called?”

“Indeed. Felix, would you mind explaining Shadows to our guest?”

“My pleasure! They are parts of your psyche, manifesting in the Shattered World, the world of thoughts and cognition, as the rulers of their Arena - that desert town was an Arena, or a pocket world built around the conflict between your Shadows. By accepting them, you awakened to the power of Persona. We’re here to help you out with your journey, by helping you fully unlock your power’s potential.”

“My journey...last time, you said it would be a journey of convalescence or something. What does that mean?”

Igor sighed, suddenly looking significantly more tired.

“Convalescence: gradual healing after illness or injury. This refers to both your own process of healing, and that of the world.”

“The world?”

Igor’s eyes focused sharply on Yuki’s.

“You have seen the cracks; they are the means by which you entered your Arena. They are here, and they are spreading. For now, they are limited to the city in which you reside, but if they are not stopped, they will soon take the whole world, and shatter it. However, I believe that you have the potential to prevent this doom. You, dear guest, have the power to heal the world, to soothe its burns and stitch its wounds. You are already bound by one contract, so I shall not offer you another. Instead, I shall offer you a challenge.”

The old man leaned over his table, fingers steepled under his chin and eyes glinting dangerously.

“Yuki Kanai. The world is breaking. Can you fix it?”

The song of piano and opera that had been filling the ambulance came to a halt, and the whole thing seemed to bend inwards, as though holding its breath to listen for Yuki’s answer. His tongue darted out to wet his dry lips, which were soon stretched into a sharp, toothy grin.

“I suppose,” he drawled, “we’ll just have to see, won’t we?”

Igor’s already-wide smile widened, and he clapped his hands together. The song started up again, and the ambulance walls leaned back, seemingly satisfied with this response.

“A good answer! Now, to our aid. Tell me, do you believe in fortune-telling?”

Yuki raised an eyebrow. Some of his friends back in Sapporo had gotten into arguments over the validity of fortune-telling and other magic, but the only reason he’d ever gotten involved in them was his love of shit-stirring.

“Can’t say I’ve ever thought about it too much.”

“It is quite an interesting subject, and I feel it has many similarities with life itself. Every reading is done with the same cards, the same deck, and yet they are all unique in meaning. Please, allow me to give you some of the Arcanas’ insight.”

With a motion of his hand, four cards from throughout the deck next to said hand flew out from the deck and onto the table, landing in a square formation.

“First, we shall look into your past. If you would flip over the two cards nearest you?”

Yuki complied. The first card, on his left, depicted a man hanging calmly upside-down from a tree by his leg, which formed a 4 with his other, bent leg. The other card, on his right, depicted a regal man riding a chariot, which was being drawn by two sphinxes, one black and one white. Both of them were upside-down from his perspective.

“Ah, the Hanged Man and the Chariot, both in the upright position. The Hanged Man, when upright, represents paradoxes and juxtaposition, as well as the accepting of new perspectives. The Chariot, meanwhile, signifies willpower, self-assertion, and mastering opposing forces. In combination, this means that you have, through your determination and willingness to look at things from another point of view, combined two seemingly contradictory things into a greater whole, and have grown all the stronger for it.”

With a snap, the Hanged Man and Chariot slid aside, and the two unrevealed cards moved closer to Yuki.

“Now, we shall see what your future has in store for you.”

Igor only needed to gesture for Yuki to proceed with flipping the cards, revealing the images of a naked woman pouring water into a pool and on the ground under a starlit sky and corpses reaching up to a trumpet-blowing angel from their graves. Both of the cards, again, looked upside-down to him.

“The Star and Judgement, hmm? The first represents hope, purpose, and renewal. The second, meanwhile, indicates a coming rebirth, and either absolution or perdition, alongside life-changing and world-shaking decisions. I believe this means you will, in the coming year, find new hope and be faced with a decision that will lead to either the world’s renewal and rebirth, or it’s damnation and destruction. For better or worse, the world shall be changed irrevocably.”

Igor waved his hand, and the cards, along with the rest of the deck, disappeared into blue motes of light. With another wave and more light, a large, ultramarine key formed above Igor’s table. As he opened his mouth to speak, presumably to explain the key, the ambulance shook, and sparks of red electricity flew about everywhere. Soon, the ambulance was back to moving smoothly, but Igor glared up in the sky.

“It seems that your... _ contractor _ ...wishes to speak with you. It would not do to keep him waiting, however much more I have to tell you. Felix, would you explain the key to our guest while I prepare the transfer?”

“Sure thing, master!”

Felix hopped up from his seat and took the key, before stepping to stand beside Yuki. Meanwhile, Igor closed his eyes in focus, soon being surrounded in spirals of blue light.

“This,” Felix began, golden eyes boring into Yuki’s, “is the Velvet Key. It is what will allow you to return here of your own will, from the physical world. I believe you have already seen the entrance; it’s a big blue door in the middle of Domaku Station, can’t miss it. Well, except for everybody but you - they’re all gonna miss it. But you! You’re special.”

Felix pressed the key into Yuki’s left hand, before clasping it between their own two hands and leaning even closer in.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be your attendant, Yuki.”

Yuki smirked.

“I look forward to you showing me your excitement, then.”

He felt a tug in his chest, somewhere around his heart, and heard a sound like a mirror being punched. Everything around him froze in place, and a deep thrumming of rightness flooded his body. A chorus of voices echoed in his skull, all saying the same thing: 

_ I am thou...thou art I. _

_ Thou hast formed a new bond. _

_ It shall heal thy wounds and give thee strength... _

_ Along this road of destiny, until the world goes headlong. _

_ Thou shalt be blessed when making Personas of the Fool Arcana. _

As suddenly as it had come on, the moment subsided. Felix released his hand before stepping back, leaving the key where it was. Igor opened his eyes, and he was now surrounded by the light that had just been spiraling around him.

“Farewell, Yuki Kanai. Until we meet again, of your own accord.”

**RANK UP! FOOL ARCANA: VELVET ATTENDANT SOCIAL LINK**

* * *

**???**

There was the sound of shattering glass, and Yuki was lying on his back upon a hexagon of black and red once more. Not wanting to get assaulted by the rust-clad man like last time, he quickly stood to his feet and looked around to find him. It didn’t take long, as he was sat lazily upon a scarlet pillar in the center of the hexagon.

“So, you got the Velvet Key. They gave you the spiel about Shadows and Personas and Arenas and all that jazz. You even got your first Social Link! I suppose congratulations are in order.”

The armored entity stood up from his seat, and walked over to put his clawless hand on Yuki’s shoulder.

“But, there are more important things than the incessant deceptions of that long-nosed coot and whichever of his coterie he has attending you. Yes, deceptions, but I think I actually managed to take you here before they got too far into it. See,  _ they’re _ gonna tell you that your power is fueled by the power of your bonds with others and that to reach your full potential you must channel the power of friendship or something. But, you know what?”

He leaned in to Yuki’s ear, almost conspiratorially.

_ “ _ That’s all nothing but  _ horseshit,” _ he hissed viciously. “Your power does not spring from others. It comes from within, from your determination and sheer force of will. Bonds with others will only hold you down, but if you’re a real man, with real power, you’ll cast aside those limitations and be free to do what you will.”

Yuki slid his eyes to meet the entity’s mismatched ones.

“If you are so insistent on real power leading to freedom, why exactly would you have me sign a contract making me take responsibility for my actions?”

The hand came off his shoulder, and the entity stepped back a bit.

“Well, that’s meant to be more along the lines of...not blaming your actions on those around you, instead of accepting punishment for them or whatever. Saying ‘Yeah, I did those things, what are you gonna do about it?’ instead of ‘Oh, I did a bad thing, please punish me!’ or ‘I did a good thing, shower me with praise and treasure.’”

“Hm. Sounds interesting,” Yuki said blandly. “Is there any way I can get rid of you?”

“No, and don’t try using your Persona on me. I’ll destroy you in an instant.”

_ Sadly, he’s right, _ Zagreus chimed in.

“How unfortunate. Well, as it seems we’ll be meeting like this for the foreseeable future, do you have a name?”

His hand came up to scratch his chin, which looked pretty weird in a suit of armor.

“You can call me…Tinia. And, I suppose, this place should have a name too. The Vermillion Room has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

“You  _ really _ don’t like the Velvet Room, do you?”

“No, I don’t. I might even tell you why, eventually. But for now, it’s almost time for you to wake up. I’ll bring you back to the Vermillion Room when it’s time for us to have another talk. Any last words?”

Yuki found those two eye-lights, one gold and one red, and stared into them as though his eyes could burn through them and out through the back of the rusty helmet.

“Fuck you.”

There was a second after the words had been spoken before Tinia reacted. He reared back his claws, which crackled with scarlet electricity. Yuki tensed, and when the charged gauntlet moved forth to throw a red bolt, he dodged left. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite fast enough, and it struck him in the shoulder. With the sound of shattering glass, the world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the title this time isn't actually a quote from something, it's just. there's the velvet room and the vermillion room. alliteration go brrr.
> 
> find me on [tumblr](https://cogandstar.tumblr.com) where i speak into the void and make shitposts about this and other stuff.


	5. Intermezzo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuki meets new people and makes good on his promises (or at least, starts to).

**Tuesday**

**April 12, 202X**

**Early Morning**

The rain from Monday afternoon continued through the night and into the next day. Having not gotten the best sleep, mainly due to the rather unpleasant dream conversation with Tinia he’d had, Yuki yawned as he got ready for the day. Idly, he made a mental note to be sure to grab an umbrella on his way out the door. His lack of energy was mostly remedied when he ate the hot breakfast Chihiro had made for him. As he grabbed his bag and an umbrella, she pressed a full bento box into his hands.

“Here’s your lunch. Also, I’m probably not gonna be around tonight - I’ve got a lot on my plate at work, so I’ll probably end up sleeping over there. There should be some leftovers in the fridge, and I’m pretty sure you won’t burn the apartment down if you make some instant ramen.”

Yuki smirked as he slid the lunch into his box, remembering some of his previous attempts at cooking.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Aunty. I think I’ll stick to the leftovers.”

She blinked in seeming shock at his admittance of culinary incompetence. Before she could comment, he wrapped her into a tight hug.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Aunty. Love you.”

She returned the hug, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Love you too, kid. Remember to talk to that counselor.”

He waved his hand in acknowledgement as he stepped out the apartment door and headed out. Their neighbor, a scarecrow-like man in the charcoal grey suit of a salaryman who was also leaving his apartment, nodded politely to him as they walked together to the elevator. As they rode the elevator, Yuki examined the man more closely. His brown hair was tied back, and the wide round glasses he wore almost concealed the dark eyes underneath his brown eyes. Regardless of the eyes, however, he could tell the man was tired; it was in his slumped shoulders and the slouch of his back.

When the elevator opened on the ground floor, the salaryman forced himself to stand straight, and walked in the direction of the apartment building’s parking garage. Yuki raised an eyebrow, before shrugging and heading towards the subway station, and ultimately, to school.

* * *

**Tuesday**

**April 12, 202X**

**Morning**

As he exited Akijou Station and turned down the road to Souzou, he fished out a fifty-yen coin and called out for Yata. Yuki studiously ignored the stares he was getting as he stood in the middle of the street, holding a coin like Simba in the Lion King and shouting out a name. After a bit, Yata flew down from...somewhere and took a position on Yuki’s left shoulder. Rewarding her with the coin, he began talking to her as he walked. She cawed intermittently, and seemed to be more focused on trying to groom his hair than listening to his words.

“Uhh...Senpai?” Saori walked up beside him.

“Yes, Padawan?”

“Why do you have a raven on your shoulder?”

Both Yata and Yuki, in unison, fixed her with a death glare.

“Never call a crow a raven in front of me again, and she’s for emotional support.”

Saori blinked.

“...Does she have a name?”

“Yup! Her name’s Yata.”

“Hmm. How long have you had her?”

“Oh, I just met her yesterday, in an alleyway after school.”

“Why were you in an alleyway?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? Alleyways are my natural habitat.”

“If you say so.”

The two split off when they arrived at the school, heading to their own classrooms.

* * *

**Tuesday**

**April 12th, 202X**

**After School**

While everybody else in the class filed out following the last bell, Yuki was beckoned over by Tadashi-sensei. Waving goodbye to his classmates, he walked to his teacher’s side.

“What’s up, Teach?”

Tadashi gave him a dirty look at the nickname, but let it slide.

“I wanted to talk to you about how you’re settling in. Would you rather do that here, or in the faculty office?”

“Uh, here’s fine.”

Tadashi nodded.

“Alright. Feel free to cut off the conversation whenever you want, I won’t get offended. I know most teenagers don’t exactly like talking with their teachers. You might want to sit down, or otherwise make yourself comfortable.”

Shrugging, Yuki sat himself down on the nearest desk, facing his teacher.

“So, Kanai-kun, how have you been settling in? I know it’s only your second day, but you’ve had an interesting life recently, so I wanted to check in. I heard you were involved in a train crash on Sunday?”

 _Interesting is putting it mildly,_ he thought to himself.

“You hear correctly, Teach. Luckily, I managed to get out alive and unharmed.”

“So I see. Very fortunate indeed. Speaking of harm, have you been to the counselor yet?”

Yuki looked down and to the side, scratching the back of his neck.

“Not yet, but I was planning on paying a visit to his office today.”

Tadashi blinked in surprise.

“That’s good to hear. I was afraid I’d have to try and sweet-talk you into going. Do you know where his office is, or would you like me to show you the w-”

He was interrupted by a loud, clanging alarm sound from his pocket. His face tightened into a grimace, as he reluctantly pulled out his phone and looked at the caller ID. Turning away from Yuki, he brought the phone to his ear.

“What is it?...What? Why?...It’s your week, not mine!...Don’t you start with that!...Fine, I’ll do it.”

Over the course of the phone call, his body had only continued to tense in anger. By the end of it, Yuki was mildly afraid for his teacher’s phone; he was grabbing it so tightly that it seemed as though it might crack. After taking a few deep breaths, Tadashi returned his phone to his pocket and turned around to regard Yuki once more.

“Unfortunately, something just came up that I have to handle. You know your way to his office, right?”

“Yup, it’s on the first floor, right next to the nurse.”

Tadashi was relieved.

“Good to hear. Remember, if you need anything, feel free to come to me. Have a good rest of your day, Kanai-kun.”

“You too, Teach.”

***

Yuki whistled a jaunty tune as he strolled his way down to the counselor’s office. This was interrupted, however, when he saw Natsuko Dosei and Tomoyo Yamazaki, along with a rather pretty-looking tanned boy with chin-length blond hair and a pale scar trailing up from his chin to just below his right eye, crowded around a table in a hallway corner. Well, Dosei and Yamazaki were crowded around the table - the pretty boy was sitting on it, lazily reclined like a king on his throne. Whatever conversation the trio was having came to a halt as Pretty Boy noticed Yuki.

“Oh, is this the transfer student you were telling me about? You should’ve told me he was gonna be competition.”

“Competition for what, Pretty Boy?”

Smirking, he slid off the table and spread his hands wide, as though he were a showman.

“The title of most eligible bachelor in Souzou, of course! And you really don’t have room to go calling people Pretty Boy, Mr. Eyelashes.”

“How much does being ‘the most eligible bachelor’ matter if you never get a second date?” Dosei interjected.

Pouting, Pretty Boy play-whined, “You’re so mean to me, Natsu-chan! Just because I have high standards, I swear. Besides, I have a good feeling about my date with Abe-chan today.”

“I’ll make sure I have ice cream ready,” deadpanned Yamazaki.

“You too, Tomo-chan? Anyways, I’m Susumu Mizusei. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Yuki Kanai. The feeling’s mutual, Pretty Boy.”

Mizusei reached out his hand for a shake. Yuki went to take it, but the moment their hands touched, an intense static shock made him swear and shake his hand out. Mizusei was having a similar reaction, and seemed about as surprised as he was.

“Wow! That was weird. You been rubbing yourself on the carpet or something?”

“Maybe the universe is trying to ensure us two pretty boys can’t come together. Trying to prevent an attractiveness singularity.”

“Have you considered the possibility of an _arrogance_ singularity?” drawled Dosei.

“Truly, you wound me, Princess.”

“Jackass.”

Yuki barked out a laugh.

“That’s me! Anyhow, there’s somewhere I gotta be, so Pretty Boy, good luck on your date, and Princess and Prez, good luck on whatever you get up to. See you all tomorrow.”

He continued walking towards the counselor’s office. Just as he got there and was about to knock on the door, it opened as a first-year with bronze hair and headphones around his neck stalked out. Turning to avoid getting shoulder-checked by the kid, Yuki took a look at the inside of the office. The walls were covered in cheesy motivational posters, and it seemed to have a variety of seating, from the standard plastic chairs to a couch and even some beanbags.

Sitting in an office hair was a man (presumably Matsumoto) with black curly hair, a goatee, and oval-shaped pince-nez glasses, wearing a button-down shirt with a pattern like graphing paper, khakis held up by black suspenders, and a bright red bowtie. When Yuki stepped into the office, he looked up and set down his notepad on the table next to him.

“Ah, Kanai-kun, yes? Principal Takami told me you might be swinging by. What can I do for you?”

Yuki swallowed the lump in his throat.

“Well, I was wondering if I could maybe, uh, sign up for a session with you or something?” His voice cracked, but Matsumoto ignored it.

“Of course! Unfortunately, I don’t have time for a session today - how long were you thinking for the session?”

“I...don’t know. I’ve never done this before.”

“That’s A-okay! My recommendation is forty-five minutes to an hour.”

“How about an hour?”

“That sounds great to me! Let me check my calendar for an opening.”

Matsumoto kicked off from the floor, rolling his chair over to the calendar on the wall. After a few seconds of examination, he pulled out a marker and uncapped it.

“Does right after school next Wednesday work?”

“Sure.”

“Spectacular! One last thing: I do have a file on you, but I’ve refrained from looking at it until now. I wanted to ask you before I just read your whole backstory.”

“Oh! Thanks for the consideration, Doc. Feel free to read it.”

“Thanks for trusting me, Kanai-kun. I look forward to our session.”

Yuki nodded, before stepping out of the office and letting out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. There were still butterflies swirling around his stomach, and he could feel his heart rate was still up, but that was all residual anxiety. Mentally, he high-fived himself for actually going through on asking for help, and he could hear Zagreus _yeehaw_ -ing around his head.

The anxiety soon gave way to the warm glow of self-satisfaction, accompanied by the soothing experience of Yata grooming his hair. Apparently, she had very high standards of hair care which he consistently failed. He laughed and shooed her off him when he got to the station, something which she took offense to, having not yet finished her grooming. He promised her that he would give her free reign on his hair for as long as she wanted tomorrow, before descending to the trains.

* * *

**Tuesday**

**April 12, 202X**

**Evening**

Yuki sighed as he opened the fridge to look at what leftovers there were. For a bit, he’d considered the idea of making instant ramen for dinner, but then he remembered his track record with that. He had only kind of been exaggerating when he’d told Aunty that he might burn the apartment down if he tried to cook anything. His inability at cooking was something that he had inherited from his mom, whose cooking could be accurately described as a weapon of war. They had all hoped that Yuki’s culinary talents would resemble his dad’s, but it was tragically not to be.

Retrieving a container of fried rice, he reminisced on the first time his dad tried to teach him how to cook, and the ensuing disaster that had involved a fire extinguisher, two trombones, and the neighbor’s pet dog. There had been a handful of attempts at instruction afterwards, but after his dad died Yuki and his mom mostly relied on take-out and simple foods that didn’t require much, if any, heating.

Cautiously, he put the fried rice into the microwave and began to heat it up. He was generally okay with microwaves, but every now and then something went terribly wrong and the whole thing burst into flames. Fortunately, that didn’t happen this time, and Yuki was able to enjoy the left-over fried rice without dealing with a fire.

After finishing his meal, he considered what to do with the rest of his night. He did have some homework to do for English, but he was also pretty sure that his favorite Featherman YouTuber had posted a new analysis video. So, he got up from his seat to head to his computer to watch said video. This plan was disrupted, however, by the hollow twang of Zagreus.

_You ain’t gonna shirk your work, are you?_

“C’mon, just one video won’t hurt.”

_We both know ifin’ you start, you won’t be able t’ quit an’ you won’t get anythin’ done._

He didn’t like it, but his Persona had a point. Grumbling, he retrieved the worksheets and sat down to begin translating sentences back and forth between English and Japanese.

_Be sure to take snack breaks!_

“Sure thing, Zag.”

* * *

**Wednesday**

**April 13, 202X**

**After School**

School had just got out for the day, but it seemed that Class 3-C was happy to remain in the classroom and chatter with each other. The topic of discussion for today was, apparently, clubs. A sizable portion of the class had forsaken their clubs for cram school, trying to get into the best colleges. Then there were the ones who were presidents or otherwise highly involved in their clubs, like Kensei or Ozaki. There were a handful of other students who didn’t fall into these neat boxes, and it seemed that they would be facing the interrogation of an entire classroom of curious teenagers.

“You never really did any clubs, right, Dosei-chan?” asked one of the girls.

“My responsibilities as heiress take too much time for me to fully commit to such extracurricular activities, yes. It would be unfair of me to join a club if I could not give it my all,” was the cool answer.

“What about you, Kanai-kun? You just transferred here, are you gonna do any clubs?”

He looked up from his desk, where he’d been packing up his bag and writing out some ideas he’d had on how to test out his Persona. He folded the paper up and slid it away before answering.

“Well, I did kendo back in Sapporo, so I’m gonna try out for the team here. At lunch today a second year ambushed me with flyers for the Environmental Club, so I’ll probably give that a look too. Might even do both, if they interest me enough.”

A new voice entered the conversation - Masami Hoshide, the swim team captain, whom he’d dubbed Fish.

“Really? You’re gonna do two clubs on top of dealing with college stuff?”

He shrugged, and gave her the shark grin he’d practiced in the mirror for a month back in middle school.

“What can I say? I like challenges.”

“If you say so.”

After that, the conversation fizzled out, and Yuki slipped out of the classroom and began to head towards his destination. He’d done some research and found what he thought would be a pretty safe spot to test out his new powers without causing too much of a disturbance, and he wanted to do some testing before he had to go home for dinner and to watch Featherman Omega with Aunty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i almost forgot to post this today; i've got exams coming up soon so my mind's a bit frazzled. sorry about that!
> 
> find me on [tumblr](https://cogandstar.tumblr.com) to get first-row seats to my nonsense.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Persona Vivid Monochrome](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29415255) by [Ibellasnowrider](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibellasnowrider/pseuds/Ibellasnowrider)




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